


Negotiations

by HixyStix (GaiaMyles)



Series: Salvation 'Verse [12]
Category: Jericho (US 2006), Supernatural, The Agency (TV 2001)
Genre: F/M, but won't spoil you for what happens in between, domesticity while hunting, mentions of Griff Krenshaw, mentions of Supernatural characters, multiple case fic, this is way down the line from Salvation folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 06:08:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 45,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18382532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaiaMyles/pseuds/HixyStix
Summary: There’s more than just demons in Jericho and it’s up to Bill and Sarah to deal with them while juggling their jobs, their friends, and their marriage.Future sequel to Salvation Across Universes.





	1. Prologue: Lex

**Author's Note:**

> Prologue originally written by [WarlockWriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarlockWriter/pseuds/WarlockWriter) and adapted by me.
> 
> Beta-ing done by WarlockWriter as well!
> 
> As said, this is in the Salvation universe, but takes place at least two or three stories down the line. No spoilers here, though; we're just focusing on Bill and Sarah.
> 
> This story also fulfills the squares "Unlikely Hero" (Sarah) and "Part of a Team" (Bill/Sarah/Jimmy/Stanley) for the Non Gabe Rich Bingo.

Thanksgiving was only a couple days away and Sarah was trying to decide what to cook for dinner.  Bill would be home in about an hour, giving her time to fix something, but she was entirely unmotivated.  Unfortunately, she was also pretty sure they’d exhausted their eating out budget for the month.

With a sigh, she reached for the skillet but was interrupted by a knock at the door.  Assuming it was somebody trying to sell something – it was fundraising season for the schools and Sarah had already bought wrapping paper and peanut brittle from the Taylor kids – she went to the door, prepared to be polite but firm.

Opening the door caused her to break into a huge grin, however.

Lex stood there, shifting his feet, his expression trying for cocky but only managing shy.  “Hey, Sarah.”

She immediately pulled him into a hug and couldn’t stop smiling.  It had been over a month since she and Bill sent him and Griff back to their universe and she still thought about them almost every week, wondering how they were doing.

When she finally let go, she asked, “How did you get here?”  Remembering her manners, she motioned him into the house.

“Gabriel said he could send me here for a few days.”  His gaze dropped to the floor, as if there was something fascinating there.  This wasn’t the brash hacker that had first popped into their lives.  “I missed you guys.”

Sarah hugged him again before pointing him in the direction of the guest room.  “You know your way around.  I was just starting dinner, so you’ve got plenty of time to make yourself comfortable.  Bill should be back in about an hour.”

“I was hoping I could take you guys out to dinner, if that would be okay.”  His eye twinkled wickedly.  I checked before I knocked.  The credit card is still good.”

Sarah grinned back at him.  “Well, it would be a real shame not to use it, wouldn’t it?”

“Of course!”

By mutual agreement, they talked about what had been going on with Sarah, saving Lex’s doings for when Bill got home.  Sarah didn’t really have much to share, but she told a few funny stories from work and told Lex about the time Stanley’s neighbor’s cows got loose and walked right down the middle of Main Street.  Bill still got the giggles at odd times over that one.  He and Jimmy had been “roped” into helping herd them back home.

Lex was still laughing over that when the door opened and Bill walked in.  He stopped in shock as soon as he saw Lex, but it only took a few seconds for him to grin, showing those dimples Sarah loved so much, and stepped forward to give Lex a hug.

“His special credit card still works, babe, and he wants to take us out to dinner,” Sarah said.

Bill’s smile got a bit wider and he said, “Let me get changed.”

 

They ended up at Bailey’s since no one was in the mood to drive very far.  Dinner was delightful, with Lex sharing stories of all the things he’d learned and the people he’d met.

Sam Winchester:  “Oh, you’d like him, Bill.  Sensible and down to Earth plus wicked accurate with a gun.”

Dean Winchester:  “You’d think him quite pretty, Sarah.  But he’s focused and a damned good hunter.  I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Castiel:  “Kind of an odd one.  A bit stiff at times, but wow, can he plan strategy!  He and Sam figured out that hunting strategy was pretty much like hacking – only with more guns.  Once they figured out the right way to explain it, Cas taught me so much.  You’d like him too, Bill.”

Weapons:  “Did you know angels have blades that can kill demons?  They can be used by humans, too.”  Lex carefully opened up his leather jacket and they could just see a silvery blade in a scabbard affixed cunningly under his arm.  “Sam has a demon-killing knife that a _demon_ gave him, which is weird, but they haven’t told me the whole story yet.  But imagine how much easier it would have been back then if we’d had one of these!”

Monsters:  “Oh, I’ve fought so many now.  Not just demons but vampires, werewolves, shifters, and djinn.  There’s like a whole hidden supernatural world I never knew about.”

Sarah noticed that he didn’t talk much about Gabriel and she wondered about it, but didn’t think it was her place to pry.

“Do you think all those monsters exist here?” Bill asked.  “Or is it just demons?”

Of course Bill would go there, she thought.  To be fair, so had she.

“I’m not sure,” Lex answered.  “It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to come back.  I know what to look for now and I wanted to do some checking to see what you have over here.”  He patted his shirt pocket where Sarah could see his phone poking out.  “I downloaded a lot of lore and I can leave it with you.  Just in case, you know.”

Bill seemed pleased at that.  Sarah was too, but really she was just happy to see Lex again.  Hunting life seemed to agree with him: he really lit up when he talked about it.

But that reminded her.  “How’s Griff?”

Lex’s expression grew sad and troubled.  “Not so good.  Oh, he denies it and says he’s fine, but I don’t believe him.  Neither does Gabriel.  He still has nightmares and he’s never properly put on weight.  Oh, he’s good at hunting and does his share.  We’ve become a pretty good team but afterwards he’s wiped out for longer than he should be.”

“Gabriel can’t do anything for him?” Sarah asked, worried.  She’d grown fond of Griff and wanted the best for him.  He was kind of like a brother she never had.

Lex shook his head.  “He would, but he needs consent to heal and Griff just waves him off.  I know Gabriel would like to give him more grace, but Griff won’t accept that either.”  His voice lowered.  “I don’t know what to do for him.  I’m afraid we’re going to lose him on a hunt and that thought just kills me.”

Lex was on one side of the booth, with Sarah and Bill opposite him.  In that moment, Lex looked so alone over there that Sarah started to push Bill out of the way so she could go give him a hug.  Before she’d done much more than turn, Bill was already over there, pulling Lex close.  Sarah paused, surprised, before settling back in.  Maybe it was their shared grace, but her husband was more physical with Lex and Griff than he was with anyone but her – a fact which had slipped her mind.

“You just do the best you can, Lex,” Bill said.  “You do everything you can do for your partner, but you have to accept that sometimes your best isn’t enough and you lose them.”

Sarah knew how hard Bill would take it if anything happened to Jimmy.

Lex leaned into Bill’s broad chest, suddenly appearing to be the younger of the two.  “I know that.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier, though.  I know.”

They stayed like that for a long minute before Bill let go and scooted out of Lex’s seat.  Before he blocked her in again, Sarah took her turn at Lex’s side and hugged him too.  He hugged back and managed a small smile.  “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to bring down the mood.  I really am happy to see you both again.”

Bill signaled for the check.  Lex paid and they left.

 

Once they arrived at home, Bill let Sadie out in the backyard for an evening run – usually they’d walk her, but having a guest threw off their usual schedule.  Sadie would have to deal tonight.

Standing in the door to the living room, Lex asked, “Okay if I do a check to see what might be around to bother you?  I know what to look for now, like I said.”

Sarah glanced over at Bill, who shrugged and headed for his chair.  “Works for me, as long as you don’t mind if I watch some TV while you work.”

Lex shook his head.  “Won’t bother me any.  I used to hack surrounded by about twenty other people, all talking and doing all manner of stuff.”  He sat down at the coffee table and pulled out his laptop.  Sarah thought it looked like the same one he’d had when he was here last.

“Want some tea?” she asked.

“Definitely!” came the enthusiastic response.  It amused Sarah that his eyes didn’t budge from the screen.

She was filling the kettle with water when Lex asked, “You haven’t changed the WiFi password?”

Sarah raised her voice enough to be heard in the other room.  “No.  We don’t change it that often.”

“You should!”

She turned off the water and clicked on the kettle.  “How often do you recommend?”

There was a pause before Lex said, “Monthly?”  She could tell from his tone that he’d rather it was far more often than that.

She poked her head in the living room.  “Not likely.  It’s too much of a pain to add the new password to all our stuff.”  Stuff being her phone, Bill’s laptop, and the top-of-the-line iPad Lex had left them.  Bill was still resisting the upgrade to a smartphone and her desktop was plugged in directly.

The sound of furious keyboard clicking followed her back into the kitchen.  About the same time she had the tea ready, her phone jangled, announcing an incoming text.  Curious, she took her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and looked.  It was from Lex, a picture of the four of them they’d had Jimmy take just before Lex and Griff left.  Griff was smiling and Sarah was a bit sad to see him, considering what Lex had told them earlier.

She picked up the mugs of tea and walked into the living room.  “Thank you, but you sent us a copy of that picture before you left.”

She handed a mug to Lex, who looked up as he took it and smiled his thanks.  “I know you have it, but keep that one on your phone.  I sent one to the iPad too.”

“What for?”

“I changed your WiFi password and wrote a little program to change it every week.”

“What?” both Sarah and Bill exclaimed at the same time.  Apparently Bill had been listening while watching his program – some World War II documentary, Sarah noted in passing.  “I’m not reprogramming passwords every week,” she warned.

Lex smiled at them.  “You won’t have to.  I added a bit of code to that picture.  As long as you keep that picture on any device you want connected, the program will automatically push the new password to the device.”

Sarah sat on the couch next to him.  “That’s actually convenient.”

Bill huffed from his chair, but she knew it was his secretly-pleased-but-didn’t-want-to-admit-it huff.

“Before I leave,” Lex continued, “I’ll set up a guest account you can give to people who come over.  It’ll be firewalled off from the rest of your network and will be too slow for anything other than checking email.  Its password will reset every week as well and you’ll get a text with the new password so you can give it to people.”

Sarah patted his shoulder.  “That’s thoughtful of you, Lex, but I’m not sure we need all that.  We’re in Jericho, Kansas, not the wilds of D.C.”

“True, but I love you both and want you to be safe.”  He paused.  “I do think about you guys when I’m over there, you know.  Griff too.”

Sarah gave Lex a one-armed hug.  “We think about you guys as well.  Too bad we can’t visit regularly.”

Lex shrugged.  “I’ll work on getting Gabriel to let us visit more often.”  He took a sip of tea and hummed appreciatively.

“You like it?” Sarah asked.  “It’s some tea from the Pacific Northwest my parents got me on one of their trips.  Thankfully, it’s on Amazon, too.  You can’t laugh at the name, though.”

She could tell that piqued Lex’s curiosity.  “What is it?” he asked cautiously.

“Chuckanut Sun.”

Bill snorted, just as he always did when Sarah talked about this tea.  She rolled her eyes good naturedly.

Lex’s reaction was calmer – he laughed softly and took another sip.  “Whatever it’s called, it’s good.  I’ll have to see if they have it in my universe.”

They sat in silence for a while, Sarah half paying attention to the TV, half trying to track what Lex was doing on the computer.  He’d taken his leather jacket off when he came in and was now in just a T-shirt.  He almost looked like Bill dressed like that, except for the gray in his hair.  It was an odd thing, seeing both men in her room.  Perhaps she should be glad Griff hadn’t come, too, as much as she missed him.  Three men that looked like her husband?  A little confusing for a woman.

Sarah entertained herself by watching Lex work, fingers flying over the keyboard faster than she could type – and she thought she was pretty decent with a computer.

An hour or so later, Bill turned off the TV and stood.  Sadie perked up from her spot at his feet.  “I think it’s time Sarah and I head to bed.  I don’t work in the morning, but I was up early today.”

“If it’s okay, I’m going to keep working,” Lex said.

Sarah smiled.  “I figured you’d say that.  It’s fine.  You remember where the tea and the coffee are, so help yourself.  Promise me you _will_ get _some_ sleep tonight, though.  We’re not facing down the hordes of Hell this time.  Just Thanksgiving prep.”

Lex rolled his eyes and Sarah swatted at him.  “I will, I will,” he said, dodging.

Bill held out his hand and Sarah followed him happily to bed.  It was odd leaving someone awake while they slept, but she was glad Lex came to visit.

 

Bill was already out of bed when Sarah finally woke up.  She stretched lazily, considering sleeping in a bit more, when she remembered their guest.  She pulled on a robe and headed out into the house.

The smell of frying bacon told her Bill was fixing breakfast.  She glanced in the guestroom and nodded, pleased to see the sheets and covers disturbed – Lex _had_ slept after all.

He was hunched over his laptop now, fully dressed, but with bedhead hair falling in his face.  It was a good look on him, Sarah mused.  She loved that same look on Bill, so she should have figured.

“Yup,” Lex said, voice raised enough to be heard in the kitchen.  “You’ve definitely got supernatural stuff here.  Good morning, Sarah,” he said, looking up at her.

“Morning.”  Sarah stood in the hall where she could see both men.  Bill’s hair was as rumpled as Lex’s, she noted.  “What do we have?”

Bill poked his head out of the kitchen, looking around the corner into the living room.  “Yeah.  What do we need to worry about?”

Lex started typing again.  “Vampires and werewolves, definitely.  Probably djinn.  Ghouls and, of course, all kinds of restless ghosts.  At a guess, I’d say you’ve got most of what we have.”

Sarah moved to peer over Lex’s shoulder, steadying herself on his shoulder.  He’d been making notes: there were all the monsters he mentioned and more.  What was a Shtriga?  “What do we do about them?” she asked.  Demons had been bad enough, but it looked like there was a lot more to worry about.  Were any of them near Jericho?

Lex reached over his shoulder to put a reassuring hand on hers.  “Well, for one, it looks like you don’t have as many as we do, so that’s good.  And two, I’m seeing signs of hunters as well as monsters, so it’s unlikely you’ll need to deal with all this yourself.  I’ll download all the lore on my phone to your tablet.  You’ll have information on what they do and how to destroy them.  But–” he broke off.

“But what?” Sarah asked as Bill walked in, balancing three plates of bacon, eggs, and toast.  He handed one to Sarah, placed another by Lex, and then sat down in his chair to eat his own breakfast.

“Well,” Lex said.  “I’d discussed this with Gabriel and Sam before and the easiest way to get you up to speed is to bring you across to my universe.  Sam and Dean are excellent teachers.  With Bill’s training and your research ability, we could probably get you up to speed in a few months.  Longer if you want more comprehensive training.”

Bill spluttered around his eggs.  Swallowing, he finally managed to say, “A few months?  I can’t just vanish for that long.”

“Neither can I,” Sarah said.  “Lex, we have lives here we can’t just abandon.”

Lex smiled, not at all put off by their reactions.  “That’s the cool part.  You won’t have to be gone long at all.  Gabriel is almost back to his full power, which means he could open the portal back to this day.  You’d spend however long with us and he’d return you back to this afternoon.”

Sarah had to admit the idea had merit.  Besides the training, she’d get to see Griff again and meet these other people Lex had spoken so highly of.  Not to mention making sure this Gabriel was taking proper care of him.

Bill chewed his toast thoughtfully, but Sarah knew his expression meant he was seriously considering it.  She waited, knowing it would be a mistake to say anything while he thought it through.

Finally he said, “It seems to make sense.  What do you think, babe?”

“I think we should do it,” she said, glad he’d come to the same conclusion she had.

He nodded.  “All right.  When can we do it?”

Lex pointed at Bill’s plate.  “Finish eating, pack up, and I’ll pray to let Gabriel know we’re ready.”

Sarah finished her breakfast quickly, planning what she needed to pack while she ate.  This was going to be an adventure and she was looking forward to it.


	2. Vampires

It’d taken two years before the Winchesters proclaimed them properly trained.  Two years of hard work, dangerous hunts, and getting to know more people to miss when they went back to their universe.  All in all, it was more training than Bill had received for his job over the years.

They’d been back now for a month and tried to settle in.  Only their closest friends knew what they’d been up to.  In some ways, Bill missed life at the bunker, but on the other hand, he was glad to be back home and getting on with their lives.

Speaking of which...

“I’m ready to have a baby, if you still are,” Sarah whispered as they waited in their car for the vampire to leave Bailey’s and – hopefully – lead them to a nest.

Bill shot his wife a look.  “ _Now_ is when you want to talk about this?”

“Yes,” said Sarah firmly.  “You won’t be in the mood to talk after we hunt and I’m not getting any younger.  We keep putting this off and we’ll only be _able_ to have one kid.  Last I checked, we both wanted more than that.”

Bill turned back to the alleyway, keeping a keen eye on Bailey’s back entrance.  “Sarah, we’re out hunting vampires.  You really think this is the best time to bring a kid into our lives?”

“Well, when else are we going to?  Do you ever plan on stopping this now that you know monsters exist?”

Bill was quiet for moment, contemplating.  “I can’t,” he said.  “I have to protect Jericho.  It’s what I swore I’d do when I got my badge.”

Sarah was silent and Bill was sure she had her arms crossed and a slightly irritated look on her face.  He sighed.  “So there’s not going to be a ‘better time,’” he allowed.

Imagining her triumphant look, he risked a glance back at her.  He was right.  He judiciously didn’t roll his eyes.

“I never thought I’d have to talk _you_ into kids.  You were ready on our honeymoon.  I thought _I_ was supposed to be the holdout here,” Sarah joked.

There was some movement in the alleyway and Bill tensed.  Was the vampire bringing out a victim?

“Bill, I’m serious.  We spent two long years with the Winchesters.  We learned a lot, but we could have been starting a family.  I want a baby with you sooner rather than later.”

At the risk of an argument later, Bill shushed Sarah as he focused on the alleyway.  “I think that’s them.”

“Do they have someone to feed on?” Sarah asked, switching back to hunter mode.

Bill looked closer and there were two figures, apparently making out against the wall by Bailey’s door.  “Shit.  They do.”  He reached into the space between the console and his chair, pulling out a dart gun.  He handed it to Sarah, grabbed a machete from the back seat, and they both got out of the car as quietly as possible.

They approached, hiding behind trash containers and stacks of pallets as they went.  Bill nodded to Sarah and she lay prone, aiming the dart gun at the couple.  They waited for the tell-tale _snick_ of the vampire’s teeth emerging.

As soon as they heard it, Sarah shot the dart gun.  Bill had specially filled the darts with dead man’s blood from the morgue – sometimes his position as a deputy paid off for them.  It wasn’t enough to kill the vampire, but it definitely weakened them enough that Bill could easily overpower them.

“ _FUCK_!” yelled the vampire, trying to pull the dart out from the middle of her back.  Bill shot Sarah a thumbs up and ran up to the vampire.  The potential victim fled down the alleyway and Bill knew Sarah would catch him and get him to safety.

Bill swung his machete, but the vampire still had enough sense to duck and try to tackle him.  Thankfully, the grace thrumming in his chest - grace Gabriel had given to him while they were training - helped him dive out of the way in time to spin around and catch the vampire from the back.  He kept his machete sharp and it went through the vampire’s neck with ease.  Bill was pretty sure that was because of the grace, too, but he congratulated himself on his prowess anyway.

Then he heard Sarah scream his name.

Bill ran as fast as he could just in time to see that the man they’d “saved” was also a vampire and had Sarah pinned against the wall, dart gun lying to the side.  The vampire was at her neck.

Yelling in rage, Bill tried to aim for the vampire’s head with his machete – being careful not to let it get too close to Sarah.  But he swiped through empty air.  Bill was dealing with a fully powered vampire this time.

He spun around to find the vampire behind him.  Bill did the first thing that came to mind and slammed the heel of his palm into its nose, breaking it and shoving the pieces back into its sinuses.  Vampires might be able to heal quickly from such wounds, but that move still had to hurt.  Give them a moment to regroup, at least.

“Bill, move!” Sarah called behind him and Bill ducked to the right, towards the alleyway entrance.  Sarah caught the vampire in the chest with a dart.  While she reloaded, Bill darted back in front of the vampire, between it and his wife, and swung the machete.  He missed the head, but took off the vampire’s hands.  Bill figured that was a good thing.

The vampire looked at its missing hands and that was Bill’s moment.  The machete swung and its head rolled back into the alley.

Sarah slid down the wall, clutching at her neck.  Bill ran to her and moved her hand away so he could see.  “I’m sorry,” she said shakily.  “I didn’t think he was one, too.”

There was a clear vampire bite mark on Sarah: not the neat little dots Bill always associated with vampires, but a bite that came from a mouthful of sharp teeth, a little ragged.  That must have happened when Bill distracted the vampire.

Bill let Sarah put her hand back to staunch the bleeding.  He brushed her hair back and cupped her face in his hands.  “Are you hurt anywhere else?  Did you swallow any blood?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want me to take you to the clinic or home?”

“Home,” Sarah said.  “You’re as good as the clinic if I don’t need stitches.  If you think I need stitches, I want pain meds.”

“Home it is,” Bill said.  “I’ve got to get these guys cleaned up.  I’m gonna call the office and have them handle it while I take you home.”

 

Sarah leaned back against the wall, berating herself for being so gullible.  She should have suspected… what?  That this was a trap for them?  That they just happened to catch two vampires making out with teeth?  How did that even work, she wondered.

Whatever the case, she should have been more aware.  Bill was going to use this as a reason for her not to hunt.  She _hated_ sending him off on his own, though.  He needed a partner: even that grace was not enough to save him from everything.

Sarah listened in to Bill on the phone.  It sounded like he’d called the night deputies directly.  “Riley, I’m fucking serious.  I’ve got two demon-like things we need to make disappear.”

She couldn’t make out what Riley said on the other end of the line, but it must have been snide.  “I _would_ but Sarah’s hurt and I need to get her help.  You know I wouldn’t call your sorry ass unless there was a real reason.”

Riley must have grudgingly agreed, because Bill snapped his phone cover shut on the smartphone Lex had finally talked him into.  “Here, babe, let’s get you to the car.  We can wait for Riley and Salem there.”

Sarah gave him her free hand and let him pull her to her feet.  She could feel her shirt rubbing against the bite and stinging.  She looked forward to getting home and Bill bandaging her up.  Maybe she wouldn’t bleed all over his car in the meantime.  It was a bitch getting blood out of cloth seats.

It took only a few minutes for two patrol cars to show up, lights flashing.  Bill directed them down the alley, with a brief description of what to expect, and argued a little with Salem over whose responsibility it was to clean up these sorts of messes.  Salem had been there at the demon battle, but he turned his nose up at the idea of dealing with more of these creatures.  Sarah had heard Bill’s ranting on the subject more than once.

“Okay, babe, let’s get you home.”  Bill helped her in the front seat and buckled her in.

Sarah grinned.  Her husband was always a stickler for the rules and she found it endearing.  He’d learned to fudge them in the last couple of years, but road laws were ones he still followed to the letter – except in his patrol car, where he drove like a maniac, but Sarah knew to never bring that up.  If she did, she’d get an earful about offensive driving training at the Academy and how it was important to get from place to place quickly while on patrol.

Unsure how well she was staunching the blood flow, Sarah sat leaning forward, pressing against the seatbelt and glad she’d been bitten on the left.

Bill gave her a look and she half thought he’d lecture her on how seatbelts worked best, but he held his tongue.

Wow.  He must really be worried for her.

Bill did his standard loop through the neighborhood, looking for anything unusual or any tails, before he pulled into their garage.

“Come on,” he said as he led her into the house, one arm around her waist.  “I’ll clean you up in the bathroom.”

Sarah sat on the edge of the tub and let Bill peel her bloodied shirt and bra off.  “Let me see it, babe,” he murmured, keeping her from covering the bite with her hand again.  He studied it for a second, then grabbed the first aid kit from its spot under the sink.  He dosed out alcohol onto cotton balls and daubed them on each tooth mark.  Sarah hissed in pain.

Bill didn’t let Sarah’s pain deter him.  He wiped down her entire neck area, cleaning up all the blood.  Gently, he applied antibiotic ointment and taped down some gauze.  “There,” he said, leaning back.  “If you wear a turtleneck the next few days, the library won’t even know.”

Sarah gently touched the top of the gauze, feeling the sting of the bite underneath.  “We still need to talk, hon.”

”I know,” Bill sighed.  “Kids.”

“ _Our_ kids, Bill.  I want them so bad I can taste it, and I’m afraid we’re going to keep putting it off until it can’t happen.”  Sarah held her hand out so Bill could help her up.

When she stood, Bill gave her a light kiss.  “Look at you,” he said.  “You really want to raise a kid when you come home looking like this?”

Sarah pointedly looked down at Bill’s clothes, which were spattered with blood.  “We’ll just have to be more careful.”

“You’re going to stop going on hunts,” Bill said and Sarah knew he was coming around to the idea.

“I’ll stop when I’m pregnant,” she promised.  “But you need to get backup other than me.  I’m not letting you go out alone.  Jimmy or Stanley or Connor or _someone_.”

“You’ll stop _now_.”

“When I’m pregnant,” Sarah insisted.  “So you’re with me?  We’re gonna try?”

Bill put his hands on her hips.  “So, what?  Just like that, you decided we’re having a kid?”

“ _We_ decide,” Sarah corrected.  “I need to hear a ‘yes’ here, babe.”

Leaning his forehead against hers, Bill said, “Yes.”  It didn’t even sound reluctant.  “Yes, I want kids with you.”

Sarah burst into a grin.  She desperately wanted this with Bill and it was good to know he was with her.  She moved to take off his shirts.  “Let’s start tonight.”

 

Anticipating Bill’s answer, Sarah had done some prep work:  she’d started tracking her cycle with an app on her phone and taking prenatal vitamins.  She took enough medication in the morning that Bill never noticed an extra pill.  She’d call the ob/gyn for an appointment after Bill left for work, but first they needed to talk about last night.

“I think they were waiting for us,” she said over breakfast.  Like Bill suggested, she’d worn a turtleneck sweater and you couldn’t see her bandages.  It was December, so she’d fit in most places, but the library stayed warm enough through the winter that she suspected she’d roast today.

Bill munched some bacon.  “Why do you think that?”

“Why weren’t they feeding on humans?  Why’d they pretend to feed on each other?  What purpose did that serve, unless they knew we were there?”

“You think they saw us waiting,” Bill said, looking off in the distance, which meant he was thinking.

“Maybe,” Sarah mused.  “Or maybe they were trying to draw out the hunters in town.  Maybe they heard what went down with the demons and think they can pick us off.”

“Well, we’re the only ones actively hunting that I know about, babe.”

“So they were after us.  Either specifically or in general, I think they were out to test the waters here.  They may have a large nest wanting to move in.”

“Well, we left them a message that they’re not welcome here,” Bill laughed.  “I think we’re okay.”

Sarah wasn’t so sure.  “Just be careful today, okay?  Make sure to get a nap in before we figure out tonight’s plan.”  She stood to collect dishes and kissed Bill on the top of the head.

He reached up and grabbed her arm.  “Whatever we do tonight, you’re backup – not up in the front with me.”  His gaze traveled down to her stomach.

Swatting him lightly with her other hand, Sarah fussed, “Not our deal.  I’m your partner, with all that means, until you get more backup.”

Bill squeezed her arm.  “You need to be careful.  Especially now.”

Sarah grinned.  “I’m not pregnant yet, babe.  Don’t have to worry about me right now.”

“I always worry,” Bill confessed.

“I know.  And that’s why I love you.”  Sarah pulled gently out of Bill’s grasp.  “Now go, before you’re late for work.”

“Yes’m.”  Knowing his wife would take the “ma’am” from him, Bill grabbed his hat from the table without looking at her.  “Love you,” he said, kissing her on his way out the door.

 

Bill went on patrol alone that morning.  He knew Sarah would fuss at him for not staying with Jimmy the day after a hunt went awry, but he wanted to check a few possible nest sites without dragging Jimmy into this mess.

Oh, Jimmy knew about the other monsters.  Most of the town just believed in demons, but Jimmy and the rest of the department knew better.  Bill’d given them – and Stanley – a crash course in hunting so they’d know what to expect.  If it meant Bill could count on their help for cleanup or getting a hold of bodies in the town morgue, then so much the better.

It was Stanley he planned to call today.  It wasn’t harvest or planting season, so Stanley would probably be finished with work by noon.

Stanley didn’t have kids, like Jimmy.  He had Bonnie, but she was nearly an adult and should something happen to Stanley, Jericho would help her like it helped Stanley when their parents died.  Bill knew that much about his hometown: they watched out for their own.

First, though, the nest sites.  Bill hopped fences and hoofed through every abandoned barn he could get to without disturbing the owners.  Slowly, he made his way through the west side of town, checking off sites.  The radio squawked and he headed off to a domestic disturbance.

Hunting and policing and hunting and more policing.  Just a normal day these days.

 

Sarah was not having a good day.  It was hot in the library and she prayed she didn’t start sweating.  She was about ninety percent sure Joanna thought it odd she was wearing a heavier sweater and she _knew_ the town gossip Jennifer did.  She suspected they thought she was trying to hide hickeys.  Sarah would take that over the truth.

Stupid vampires.  Stupid her, for not suspecting.  Thank God Bill had been with her.

“Excuse me?”

Sarah looked up, customer-service smile plastered on her face.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Joanna had done the same.  “Can I help you?”

The patron was a petite woman – girl, really – bundled up in a thick coat and hat, gloves stuck in a pocket.  She had dark sunglasses sitting on her head and a disarming grin.  “I wanted to get a library card,” she said.

They got this question all the time.  “Oh, you can do that at the front desk,” Sarah said, pointing.

“I know,” the girl shrugged.  “But they’re busy and I was hoping you could help.”

Sarah caught Joanna’s eye and sighed, reaching into a drawer for the application.  The girl would still need to go to the front desk to get the actual card, but Sarah could help her with this part.  She handed the application and a pen to the girl and their hands brushed.

Sarah froze, eyes wide.  The girl was cold.  Not “it’s chilly in here” cold but “I’ve been dead for years” cold.  She looked up and the girl gave her a big smile of normal human teeth, but Sarah felt the threat behind that smile.  Say anything and people would die.  Sarah didn’t have anything with her to fight a vampire, anyway.

Why didn’t she do that?  Water bottles of holy water would fit into her desk drawers easily, as would salt shakers – she could always say they were for her lunches.  A silver knife would fit in her purse.  If she made it home tonight, she was fixing all that.

The girl bent over and filled out the application.  Sarah hid her phone under the desk and texted Bill.

_Vampire at library.  Come if I don’t text you in five._

That’d probably bring Bill right away, but Sarah hoped he’d stay away.  She had a sneaking suspicion what this vampire was doing and she didn’t want him here for it.  That being said, if the vampire meant harm, having him there would save a lot of people.

The vampire was scenting her, Sarah thought.  Sam had told her that vampires could track a human’s scent for the rest of their lives.  This vampire had targeted her as a hunter, she was sure, and was memorizing her.  Scenting her must be especially important if the vampire came out in the daytime – or was ordered to by her maker.  She didn’t want the vampire to get Bill’s scent, too.

Sarah wished she had a way to warn Joanna to leave their shared circular desk, but they hadn’t told Joanna about non-demonic monsters.  Now wasn’t the time for hunting 101.

Reaching up to her chest to check that her pistol was still in her bra holster reassured Sarah for a bit.  She knew she had silver bullets, which might slow the vampire enough for people to get away.  She felt a responsibility for the library and its patrons’ safety.

The vampire, still smiling, handed Sarah back her pen.  “Now what do I do with this?” she asked, as if everything was normal.

Sarah played along.  “You’ll have to take it to the front desk and they’ll get you a card.”

“Okay!” the vampire said agreeably.  Before she turned to the front desk, she said lightly, “Hope your shoulder gets better.”

A chill went down Sarah’s spine and any doubts she had were blown away.  This was a vampire, who’d smelled blood through her shirt and the dressing.  Who now had her scent.

Sarah didn’t usually curse, but this seemed the time for a well-placed _fuck._   Bill was gonna kill her when he found out.

Bill!  She’d better text him.  She waited until the vampire left the library, proud owner of a new card.

_Vampire gone.  We’ll talk tonight,_ she texted, pocketing her phone quickly.

“What did she mean, your shoulder?” Joanna asked suspiciously.

“I wrenched it last night,” Sarah lied.  “Guess she could see me favoring it.”

Joanna didn’t look like she bought it, but Sarah got up before she could ask anything else.  Jennifer was manning the front desk, so Sarah put on another fake smile and walked behind the desk to talk to her.

“Can I see that last application?” she asked.  “I need a copy of it.”

“Why?” asked Jennifer, perking up.

“She was talking to me about something and I wanted to send her some photocopies of articles.”  Sarah hated how good she was at lying.

“On what?”

“Mythological creatures.”

Jennifer gave her the application and Sarah looked it over.  Mary Chesterfield, living at an address Sarah didn’t immediately recognize, which meant it probably wasn’t residential.  She Xeroxed the application and handed the original back to Jennifer.

“Thanks so much,” Sarah said, folding up the application so it’d fit in her back pocket.

“Anytime, babe,” Jennifer quipped.  Sarah _hated_ hearing Bill’s pet name for her out of Jennifer’s mouth, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.  Jennifer did that to _everyone_.

Joanna was waiting for her at their desk.  “Okay, you have to tell me what that was about.”

Sarah tried the truth.  “You don’t want to know.”

Joanna was undeterred.  “Demon stuff?” she whispered.  “Like last year?”

“No.”  Technically, that was true.  Vampires _weren’t_ demons.  “I just got a weird vibe off her, you know?  Thought I’d abuse my power and have Bill check her out.  And since that’s officially illegal, I just now made you an accessory to a crime.”

Joanna grinned.  “You love having a husband who can run background checks and stuff, don’t you?”

A genuine smile crossed her face this time.  “You know I do.”

 

The text messages sent a shiver down Bill’s spine.  It was all he could do not to run code all the way to the library, lights flashing and siren blaring.  He trusted his wife, though, and stayed away.

Well, mostly.  He did drive down to her area of Main Street just in case he was needed.

He thought he spotted the vampire in the parking lot of the library – someone in long sleeves running to a car.  Fighting the temptation to confront it, Bill listened to his inner Sarah who warned against going in without backup.  The Winchester clan wouldn’t approve, either.

But maybe it wouldn’t cause harm to see _where_ the nest was in the daylight…

Bill maneuvered so he was two cars behind the supposed vampire, trying to tail them without being spotted.  He’d forgotten to account for vampire reflexes, though, and missed a turn they made at the last second.  By the time he’d turned around, they were gone.

Again, he considered running code until he caught them, but decided it wasn’t the most prudent thing to do by himself.  If she knew, Sarah would be proud of his restraint.

Bill picked up his cell phone – something he’d pull someone else over for – and texted Jimmy the vampire’s car info.  _Monster_ , he added.  _Don't interact, just let me know._

He could imagine his partner’s face when he read the message: something akin to fear, disgust, and disappointment that Bill was hunting during patrol time.

Bill’s phone buzzed once, indicating an incoming text message.  _Meet me by Heritage Park in ten._

Well, there was Jimmy getting involved now.  He made another turn and headed for the town’s main park.

Bill waited just a couple minutes before Jimmy turned in and parked so their driver’s side windows were facing each other.

“What was that about?” Jimmy asked, without preamble.

“Vampire out in the daytime,” Bill said.  “It went to the library and I tried to tail it, but it lost me.”

“Vampires can come out during the day?”  Jimmy looked confused.

Bill leaned on the car door, elbow sticking out.  “Yeah, it’s painful for them, but they can do it.”

“Why would it do that?”

“Sarah thinks a nest is trying to take out the hunters and move in.  We tussled with two of them last night.  Sarah got bit but she’ll be okay.  I want to find the vamp’s car so maybe I can find the nest.”

Jimmy nodded.  “You need me to help?”

“No offense, Jim, but I was going to ask Stanley.  You’ve got more at stake with your family.  I don’t want to risk you.”

Jimmy leveled his gaze at Bill.  “But you’ll risk Sarah?”

“I want her out of the action,” Bill said, shaking his head.  “She’s good, but she’s hurt and I really need to know she’s safe right now.”

An eyebrow quirked and Bill knew Jimmy was asking why.

“The thing is – and this is not something we’re going public with, so don’t tell Margaret.  The thing is, we decided it was time to try for kids.  And now I’m afraid she’s pregnant and we just don’t know it yet.”  Was he jumping the gun?  Yes, Bill knew that.  It’d only been one night of no birth control, but it didn’t stop him from being scared shitless for his wife.

“About damn time,” Jimmy said.  He and Stanley were the only two people Bill had told about their two year jaunt to another universe, so Jimmy knew Sarah was older than she should be.  “You two will be great parents, if you stay out of trouble.”

Bill shrugged.  “Trouble seems to find us, now.”

“I want to help.  Who knows how you fight better than me, besides Sarah?”

But they hadn’t really _fought_ together, Bill thought.  They’d trained together at the Academy and backed each other up almost telepathically, but Jimmy hadn’t gone up against anything but the demons.

Then again, neither had Stanley.

Bill nodded.  “If you can get away, eat early and come to the house before dark.  Make sure you’re not tailed.  I’m calling Stanley, too.”

Jimmy gave him a curt nod and pulled out of the parking lot.  Each man went a different direction, eyes peeled for the vampire’s car.

 

Making excuses, Sarah left early so she could get home well before dark.  She didn’t tell Joanna the full truth, but warned her to be careful walking to her car after work.

Bill was waiting for her and she fell into his arms happily.  Stanley waved at her from the kitchen table where they’d been poring over a map of Jericho.

“It was scenting me, I know it.  It had me pegged as a hunter,” Sarah said in a jumble of words.  “Now it can track me anywhere in town if it wants.  I can be the bait tonight, try to lure them out.”

Horrified, Bill shook his head.  “No.  If it’s got your scent, you don’t need to be out there.”

“If it’s an old enough vamp, it can find me even if I stay here and then they’ll know where we live,” Sarah pointed out.

Bill stared at her and she stared back, silently arguing with each other.  Bill broke first.  “Fine.  But you stay out of the fighting.  Jimmy’s going to be there, too.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Sarah promised.  “But I’ll fight if I need to.  If one of you needs saving, I’m jumping in.”

Bill’s argument was cut off by the doorbell.  Sarah peered through the peephole to verify it was Jimmy before she opened the door.

They looked at the laminated map of Jericho across the kitchen table and Bill marked off the barns he’d checked, leaving about twenty he hadn’t been able to get to in the daytime.

“But where are they going to go tonight?” Sarah asked.  “They’re not going to just stay home, are they?”

Bill looked at her sadly.  “I think they may go wherever you are, babe.”

“So we pick our ground.  Somewhere people aren’t.”

“Unless they split up.  Some come after me, some go after people.”  Sarah knew she wasn’t inspiring confidence, but she had to voice the possibility.  If they failed in their guessing tonight and someone died, she’d feel guilty the rest of her life.

“How big do you think the nest _is_?” Jimmy asked.

“Big enough they sent two out to be sacrificed if they couldn’t beat us,” Bill said.  “The ones last night may have been the youngest in the nest.  We may be facing smarter and more powerful ones tonight.”

“So _we_ split up.  Two of us go to people, two to… I don’t know, the football field at the high school?” Stanley chimed in.

“Do Riley and Salem know we’re hunting tonight?” asked Jimmy.  “Or Sara And Connor?”

Bill shook his head.  “After last night, I didn’t want to bring them in any further.”

“Hm,” Jimmy mused, staring at the map.  “Is our primary objective to kill or to locate the nest tonight?”

“We should locate the nest,” Sarah said.  “Then you guys can take care of it in the sunlight tomorrow.”

“We should take out as many as we can now, _before_ we take on the nest,” Bill argued.  “Especially if they’re going to be coming after you.”

“Whoa, they’re going after Sarah?” Jimmy asked and Sarah realized he’d missed that part of the conversation.  Quickly, she filled him in.

“Jimmy, I want you with Sarah,” Bill said, staring pointedly at Jimmy.  “You guys go somewhere safe.  Lock her in the bank vault if you have to.  Whatever it takes.”

Sarah rolled her eyes at Bill’s overprotectiveness.  Bill’d probably already given Jimmy the “protect Sarah” talk during work.  She was sure she and Jimmy could hold their own against a couple of vampires.  “Most nests don’t have more than ten in them, Bill, and we already took out two.  If the leader stays hidden, like they tend to, then we have at most seven vamps to split between the four of us.”

“If _they_ split up,” Bill said.  “We need to be prepared for them all to show up at once, including the leader.”

Stanley shook his head.  “We assume they split up.  It’s our best guess,” he pointed out.  “So where are you and I going, Bill?”

“Bailey’s, to get a drink like old buddies do.  Where else?”

Sarah glanced out the window.  Dusk was almost here.  “We’d better get a move on.”

Everyone tromped out to the gun safe, which held much more than the Koehler’s rifles and shotguns now.  Bill gave Sarah and Stanley dart guns, with his dead man’s blood concoction in the darts.  Jimmy, Stanley each got a machete, while Bill took an angel blade.  When Sarah protested not being armed with her blade, Bill pulled her aside.

“If it comes to using the blades, I want you running the opposite direction.”

Sarah nodded, glaring.  She wouldn’t argue with him right now, but later they would have _words_.

 

Bill began to wonder if Bailey’s had been the right guess after all.  He and Stanley nursed beers in a booth where they could see most of the patrons.

And most of the patrons looked familiar.  Bill either knew them or had broken up a bar brawl they were in.  The ones he didn’t know weren’t behaving oddly.

Really, the only ones behaving oddly in here were him and Stanley – normally by now, they’d have downed shots of liquor and _maybe_ started in on the beer.  They’d also usually sit at the bar.

Bill pulled out his cell phone and texted a quick question to Sarah.

_All quiet on the western front_ , she texted back.

Bill breathed a sigh of relief.  If she was quoting book titles at him, she was okay.

 

Sarah couldn’t figure out where Jimmy was driving her until she realized he wasn’t driving her _anywhere_.

She voiced this suspicion and Jimmy nodded.  “We’re safe on the move,” he said.  “I can outdrive them, I’m sure, and maybe all this crisscrossing of your scent will confuse them.

Jimmy had a scanner in his car, tuned to the frequency of the Jericho sheriff’s department, and he’d turned it up just in case Sara or Connor - still on duty - saw something.  Sarah was used to this as background chatter – Bill had the same setup in his SUV – but tonight, she was listening closely.

“Adam 2-11, Adam 2-12, 10-62 at the library.” came over the radio and Sarah perked up.

“What’s that at the library that needs both Sara and Connor?”  She used to have all the 10 codes memorized, but two years of disuse in the other universe had eroded her memory some.

“Alarm sounding and they should do a security check.”  Jimmy kept driving straight towards the interstate.

“Someone’s breaking into the library?  What if it’s the vampires?”

“What if it is?” Jimmy asked.  “If they’re there, they aren’t coming after us and they aren’t feeding.”

Sarah sunk down into the seat a bit and thought.  What could someone possibly want at the library?

It hit her.  Sarah sat up again and turned to Jimmy.  “More of them are getting my scent.  They know where my desk is now and I _do_ leave a jacket there that probably smells like me.”  Another thought occurred to her.  “More of them or maybe just one.”

“The leader?” Jimmy asked.

“Yeah.  I’d bet money on it.  They’re in, getting the scent, and they’ll be gone when your guys arrive.”

Jimmy shook his head.  “Never would have believed vampires were like dogs and smelling things.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot I wouldn’t have believed if Lex and Griff had never shown up.”  Sarah drummed her fingers on her leg impatiently.

Jimmy drove over the interstate and down into Monument, the tiny town where he’d been born.  Sarah stared into the side view mirror at the couple of cars on the road with them.  Both had come from the interstate, so she wasn’t too worried.

Then a third car joined them and she sat up.  “Jimmy,” she said warily.

“I see them.”

Should have known he was already on it.  Jimmy was always sharper than people gave him credit for –even Sarah fell for his easygoing manner from time to time.

He made a turn, losing the first two cars, but the third one followed them.  Another turn, this one last minute, and the car was right there on them.

“We’re getting out of town,” Jimmy muttered, and made a third turn to take them out of the small community and into farmlands.

Sarah understood.  No sense leading the vampires to a populated area, even if she felt nervous about being so far from Bill right now.  It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Jimmy, but he hadn’t trained specifically for this like Bill had.  Like she had, even if she’d worked more with Sam and Lex on lore and research and some “advanced” computer skills.

The car ran up behind them and tapped their bumper.  Jimmy pressed the gas pedal.  Sarah hoped he didn’t wreck his car trying to keep her safe.

Jimmy was a good driver and handled the country roads at speeds Sarah would never have been able to manage, but even he was no match for vampire reflexes.  They bumped the back of the car one more time.

“I think we need to take them on,” Sarah said, gripping the handle on the door.  “They’re gonna tear up your car if we don’t.”

Jimmy sounded like he was gritting his teeth.  “Not here.”  He slung them around another corner and raced on.  Sarah had the vague idea they were circling Monument.  The lights of the interstate exit loomed in the distance.

“Let’s see what they do with some publicity,” Jimmy muttered and stopped on the bridge, spinning the car until it was crosswise, driver’s side towards the vampires.  They were just outside the bright streetlight, meaning the vampires would have to be in the sight of cars on the interstate before they could attack.  “Get your gun ready.  Shoot anything that moves,” he instructed Sarah and then he got out of the car.

“Shit!  Jimmy, no!  Not alone!” Sarah called through the window he’d left open for her.

“Then shoot well.”  Jimmy was not messing around tonight.

Sarah scrambled to load the dart gun and looked up to see three figures approaching out of the dark.  One was definitely the vampire who’d visited her earlier.  She aimed.

 

Bill sat up and nudged Stanley.  Two newcomers to Bailey’s, blinking a little too much against the neon lights above the bar.

Stanley nodded and both men watched the women as they sat and ordered: Bloody Marys.  How original, Bill thought.  It was almost as if they wanted to be pegged by hunters.

…maybe they did, actually.  Did they have friends outside the bar?  Bill idly reached in his jacket and felt the cool metal of the angel blade.  It was reassuring to have and to know Stanley had his back.  He wondered about Sarah and Jimmy; it’d been at least ten minutes since Sarah last checked in.  A lot could happen in ten minutes.

Bill watched the women get their drinks and look around.  He locked eyes with one of them and the women started up towards Bill and Stanley.  Bill surreptitiously took off his wedding ring and stuck it in his back pocket.  He didn’t intend infidelity, but if pretending to be interested let the vampires try to feed on him rather than someone else in the bar, he was sure Sarah would forgive him.

Although to be fair, based on past outings before Sarah, these women were more interested in Stanley than they were him.

“What do we do?” Stanley hissed.

“Let them charm us into following them outside, where we take care of them quietly,” Bill whispered, keeping a smile plastered on his face.  “Flirt with them if we have to.  Don’t let them leave without us.”

The women – the vampires – came to the table giggling and smiling as if they were already drunk.  It was a good act, Bill had to say.  If he didn’t know, he’d’ve bought it.

“This place is _so_ crowded” – it wasn’t – “can we sit with you guys?”

Bill and Stanley stood to let them into the booth without giving up the outside seats.  The vampires slid on in.  With a deep breath, Bill sat down next to the vampire and tried to smile like he would at Sarah.

Stanley got over his initial shock and turned into his usual bumbling, flirty self: jokes about corn and farming and where were the girls from?

“Not around here,” the blonde by Bill said, sipping her cocktail through a tiny straw.

“Guessed that,” Bill said lightly.  “Not many girls like you here in Jericho.”

“Oh, I’m sure there are a few,” the brunette by Stanley giggled.

The vampire’s act was very good.  They progressively acted drunker, hanging off of Stanley and Bill, who hoped no one in the bar knew him well enough to think he was cheating.  The blonde by him was warm, which made Bill think she’d just fed.  He might have doubted that she was a vampire if it weren’t for the especial attention she paid to his neck, petting it and drawing circles with her finger where his neck met his shoulders.

The idea that they’d already had a victim tonight, though… he hoped he was wrong.

“Okay, ladies,” Stanley said.  “Farmers have to get up early, so we need to head out.  Can we take you to your home?”

Giggles, some girlish nonverbal communication, and nods.  “That would be nice.”  They named a motel less than a mile from Bailey’s. The same one from the application Sarah brought home.

Could that really be their nest? Bill wondered.  A nicer class of vampires than he’d met in Lex’s universe, if so.

He stood and held out his hand for the blonde.  He wanted to shudder when she took it, but he held it in.

“Let’s get you girls home,” he said.  “Safe and sound.”

 

Sarah looked at the biggest vampire, a dark-haired man, and fired.  She didn’t wait to see if she hit before she reloaded, but the roar of anger from that direction told her she’d shot well.

The other two vampires abandoned their weakened friend and dashed towards Jimmy.

Sarah cursed Bill for not giving her an angel blade so she could help Jimmy.  Instead, she did her best to shoot the vampires before they reached him.  First shot, a hit.  Second shot, a miss.  Damn it!  Reload and try again but the vampire was on Jimmy by that time.

Realizing she was running low on darts, Sarah did the only thing she could think of and jumped out of the car.  “Hey, it’s me you’re after, right?  The hunter?  Killed two of you guys last night!”

“Damn it!” Jimmy yelled, grappling with the fully powered vampire.  “Run!”

Sarah didn’t listen.  She fired off two more darts, hitting the vampire attacking Jimmy, and looked in his backseat.

Thank God he still kept his shotgun wedged in the floorboards.  Regular shot wouldn’t slow a vampire, but if she got close enough, she could blow its head off, essentially decapitating them.  A quick glance told her she had two shells.  Two chances.

She’d better get this right.

 

As soon as they were outside Bailey’s, the vampires became even flirtier.  One even pushed Stanley up against the wall and honest-to-God started making out with him.  It was more action than Stanley had seen in a while, as far as Bill knew.

Bill tried to reach into his jacket for the angel blade, but the blonde vampire held tight to his hand.  “You don’t want to let go, sweetie?” she pouted.  “You should kiss me, too.”

That was one thing Bill did _not_ want to do, but he had to lead her on.  Again, praying no one he knew saw him, he acted like he was moving in for a drunken kiss.  Instead, his mind was on getting his angel blade out with his left hand – awkward, but doable.

The grace in his chest pulsed and he heard a _snick._ Bill found himself looking into a mouthful of teeth and fumbled the blade.  “Fuck,” he whispered as it clattered to the ground.

He ducked as quickly as possible and found himself staring at the vampire again – both of them had a hand on the blade.  Bill had the handle, though, and pulled up, through the vampire’s fingers.  She screamed and Bill took the chance to slice her head off.  It bounced to his feet and he had the sudden urge to kick it.

Instead, he looked back to see Stanley not faring as well.  He had his machete out, but the vampire was holding his arm, keeping him from using it.

“We were right.  You’re the hunters.  Ellie was stupid enough to let you kill her, but I’m not.”  The vampire snarled and bit Stanley’s arm, making him drop the machete and bleed profusely.

The vampire turned to Bill.  “Where’d you get that pretty knife, hunter?”

“You’d never believe me,” Bill said, holding it at the ready.  Please don’t let anyone come out of Bailey’s, he prayed.  Let them stay safely inside.

He knew he was facing a fully-powered vampire.  Even with the grace, he was barely a match for it, but he had to be quicker and better.  He had to kill this vampire and save Stanley and whoever else they might feed on.

Bill sliced and stabbed, but the vampire was always a half-step ahead of him, dancing around him.  Bill finally backed her up against the wall and pulled his arm back.

_Whack_!  Stanley snuck in from the side and slammed the machete across the vampire’s neck.  The head rolled and Stanley slid down the wall next to the vampire’s crumpled body.

Someone must have heard the scream, because there were sirens approaching.  Sara and Connor were still on duty, Bill thought idly.  Good people for this.  Both of them took him seriously when he’d talked about what else was out there.

He knelt by Stanley and checked his arm.  He was bleeding in pulses and Bill knew the vampire had gone for an artery.  Bill tore off his jacket, then his outer flannel, and wrapped it around Stanley’s arm.  “Let’s get you to the car,” he said.

A patrol car skidded to a halt in front of them as they crossed the road to his SUV.  Sara and Connor climbed out, looking slack-jawed at the two beheaded bodies lying on Main Street.

“What’s the story this time, Koehler?” Sara asked.

“Vampires.  Nest moving in.  Sarah and Jimmy are out trying to kill more of them.”

The second shift deputies looked at each other.  “Think that was the thing at the library?”

Bill froze.  “What thing?”

“Something broke into the library and was running away quicker than humanly possible when we got there.”

“Fuck,” Bill said, putting two and two together, just as his wife had.  “Look, I’ve got to get Stanley to the clinic.  Can you handle this?”

Connor rolled his eyes.  “Just like you asked Riley and Salem to handle it last night?”

Bill glared.  “I’m doing the best I can, okay?  You wanna learn to fight these things and come help me?  I’ll teach you.  No?  Okay, then you get to be support services because you _know_ what’s out there.”

Connor took a step back at Bill’s vehemence.  “Okay, fine.  We’ll clean it up and tell Mary she doesn’t have to be on lockdown anymore.”

Nodding in thanks, Bill bundled Stanley in the car and headed for the clinic.  On the way, he tried calling Sarah, but got no answer.

Shit, were _they_ dealing with vamps?  He needed to find out where they were.

 

God – or someone upstairs – was listening to Sarah’s prayer as she ran towards the approaching vamps.  Two shots and two heads came off, leaving just the vampire wrestling with Jimmy.

Bill’d worked with her for years on shotgun, but it hadn’t been until Dean taught her that it really clicked – something that gnawed at Bill, but Sarah was grateful for Dean’s instruction tonight.

She dropped the empty gun and turned to Jimmy.  He was struggling, but caught her eye and did his best to throw the machete her direction.  He was giving up, Sarah saw.  He didn’t think he’d make it.  That wasn’t going to happen on her watch.  Margaret would kill her!

The blade clattered to the ground and Sarah dove for it, grabbing it before the vampire realized what’d happened.  Sarah swung the machete and _almost_ decapitated the vampire – her blade got stuck on the spine.

She yanked it free and tried again, but the vampire didn’t even seem fazed.  Behind it, Jimmy was moving again, so Sarah lured the vampire out into the light, away from Jimmy.  They danced, stabbing and biting and swiping with claws.  Sarah missed, but the vampire clawed at her left thigh, slowing her down.

“DUCK!” she heard Jimmy yell, and just like she had for Bill when the demon attacked, Sarah dropped to the ground.

The shotgun boomed twice more – Jimmy’d reloaded it while she distracted the vampire – and bits of blood and bone and brain went everywhere, splattering Sarah’s back.

She didn’t care, though.  The vampires were dead and Jimmy was relatively unscathed.

It was grisly, but Sarah and Jimmy loaded the vampires’ car trunk with their bodies.

“I’ll drive this and dump it,” Jimmy said, sounding exhausted.  “You follow me and then I’ll drop you off at home.”

Sarah felt equally tired as the adrenaline left her system.  “Gotcha.”

On the way, leaning forward so she didn’t dirty Jimmy’s car, she called Bill back.  “I’m okay, just scratched.  Not deep,” she said, answering Bill’s frantic questions.  “Three vamps, but we got them.  We’re taking their car to the dump, I think, and then heading home.  Yeah, you go ahead.  I’ll see you there.  Love you, hon.”

 

Sarah got a text from Bill when he got home and she breathed a sigh of relief.  He’d been rather quiet about his night when they were on the phone, so naturally she’d worried.  But he was home safe now.  She couldn’t ask for more than that.

Remembering lessons from Griff, Sarah stopped and picked up a gallon of gasoline and splashed it in all the right places to help the vampires’ car burn quickly.  They’d gotten past the dump’s night watchman with Jimmy’s badge and a very small bribe to keep his back turned.  “Official business,” Jimmy claimed.  “Sanitarily disposing of evidence that’s no longer needed.”

It seemed to have worked, although Sarah was sure Bill would not be happy that she’d just spent $50 on bribery.

What seemed like hours later, the bodies were no longer recognizable as such and the car was a charred hunk.  “I think we can go,” she said to Jimmy.

He yawned.  “I’ll take you home.  You tell Bill that if I call out in the morning, it’s his fault.”

Sarah grinned and hugged Jimmy.  “I’ll be sure to tell him.”

 

He’d walked right into it.  Bill couldn’t believe he’d been caught in a trap that easily.

Yawning, he’d walked straight into the house after putting away the weaponry, ignoring the pulsing in his chest.  Stupid move.

There, at his kitchen table, sat three vampires.  Bill could tell just from the feel of them in his grace that they were old.

He was looking at the nest’s leader and his two right-hand men.  Had to be.  How’d they get into the house?  He’d installed an alarm system and it should have gone off.  If it didn’t detect supernatural creatures breaking in, he was getting a damn refund.

“Glad you joined us, hunter,” the oldest one said.  “Sit with us while we wait for your wife.  We have some talking to do.”

 

Jimmy pulled up in front of the Koehler’s house and both he and Sarah frowned.

“You said Bill’s home.  Where are the lights?”

“He should at least have turned the porch light on for me,” Sarah said, getting worried.  “Jimmy, you got more shells for that shotgun?”

“You think they tracked you here?”  Jimmy sounded like he didn’t want to believe it.  Sarah couldn’t blame him; they’d just had one hard fight.

The idea that there were vampires in _her house_ with _her husband_ filled her with rage, though.  They were _not_ going to get away with this.

Sarah led Jimmy not to the front door, but through the fence gate and straight into the garage.  As quietly as she could, she opened the gun safe.

The hinges squeaked and Sarah knew the game was up.  She grabbed a shotgun and some shells and an angel blade.  She shoved the blade inside her jacket, just in time to hear a drawling voice from the kitchen doorway.

“You can put that shotgun down now.  I promise you won’t find us as easy to kill as my younger children.”

The nest leader.  Probably pissed as hell at them.  Shit.  What was she going to do now?

She set down the shotgun and closed the safe, spinning the combination lock.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jimmy set down the shotgun as well.

“Come on in, won’t you?”  The leader laughed.  “Though it should be you inviting me in, as I am the guest.”

“Southern hospitality is only for _wanted_ guests,” Sarah bit out, emphasizing her own accent.  “We greet the other kind with guns.”

“I see that.”  The vampire stepped aside and Sarah followed him in.  He shut the door before Jimmy came in.  “Your friend is the other kind of guest,” he explained, locking the door behind them.

Let Jimmy go get Stanley, Sarah thought.  Or Sara and Connor and their shotguns.  Call for backup.

Bill was sitting at the kitchen table, a vampire holding him down by the shoulders.  His eyes were full of rage, but he said nothing.

“Hi, hon,” Sarah said lightly.  “Have they hurt you?”

“No,” Bill bit out.  “But they’re–”

The vampire behind Bill squeezed his shoulders tight enough he hissed in pain.

“No telling on me,” the leader said.  “That’s my job.”

“What are you planning?  Killing us in revenge?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, no, nothing so blasé as that.  See, I love a little irony.”  The vampire leered at her.  “I have a nest to rebuild and I’m starting with you two.  Your friends will be next and you’ll lure them in.”

A third vampire grabbed her from behind, and the next thing Sarah knew, he was shoving his wrist into her mouth while Bill yelled her name.

He was trying to turn her!  She spat out the blood, but it was too late, she could already tell.  The fluorescent lights in the kitchen got brighter and more painful and she heard a pounding heartbeat – Bill’s.

Sarah dropped to the floor, overwhelmed by her senses.  Dean had said sometimes the change happened quickly, but she’d never imagined it this fast.  Her mouth hurt and she knew she was growing fangs.  This must be what babies feel when they teethe, she thought.  Her muscles hurt, too, as if they were growing.

Bill called her name but it was too loud and she flinched.  He cursed up a storm, threatening the vampires, their mothers, and their second cousins, but Sarah knew he was stuck there.

The vampires had them both.  They didn’t know about her angel blade, however, and were expecting her to still be in pain.  She was, but she wasn’t about to let them turn Bill, too.

Quicker than she’d ever moved before, she grabbed the blade from inside her coat and leapt at the vampire holding Bill.  Right there in her kitchen, she decapitated it.  Thank goodness dead vampires weren’t heavy bleeders, because she did _not_ want to clean that up before breakfast.

Bill was up in a second, but he was unarmed, Sarah could tell.  He wisely got out of her way and disappeared down the hallway.  Hopefully he was going for the shotgun he kept under the bed.

The vampire who’d turned her grabbed her by the arm and held on with a firm grip.  “Now, now.  Temper tantrums are to be expected, but you can’t lash out like this.  Not in _our_ nest.”

Sarah fought to regain the use of her arm and the angel blade, but the vampire – her _maker_ now, she shuddered – held her firmly.  She turned so that his back was to the hallway door, just in case Bill came back.

Or maybe he fled.  That would be good, too.  They could cure her, but only if they managed to kill the son of a bitch holding her.  That might not be possible.  Maybe Bill _should_ run from her.  She’d get the bloodlust sooner or later and he shouldn’t be around her then.  He shouldn’t let them turn him – or make her turn him.

“DOWN” came a booming voice from the hallway and Bill spun around the corner into the room, shotgun aimed first at the leader.

She dropped as far as she could with the vampire’s vise-like grip on her arm.  The boom filled the room so loudly Sarah thought she might cry, but she used the distraction to wrench free from the vampire’s grasp and swung the angel blade at him.

Like before, she did an incomplete decapitation, but this time she ducked without prompting and let Bill fire once more.

This time, the noise _did_ make her cry, as did the sight of the now-headless vampire flopping to the ground in front of her.

There was pounding on the garage door and Jimmy yelled their names.  Sarah huddled against the floor, all her senses taking in more information than she’d ever had before.  Was this what Bill’s grace felt like?  Or what Gabriel and Castiel felt all the time?

Bill yelled something to Jimmy, but crouched by her.  “Sarah, babe, darlin’, we need to fix that cure.  You’re the one who knows it.”

“Get away from me,” Sarah said.  “Keep Jimmy out too.  What if I hurt you?”

“Have I ever hurt you in a panic attack?” Bill asked.  “You wouldn’t hurt me, either.”

“Bill, this is not one of your damn panic attacks.  I’m a freaking vampire right now.”

“Then make the cure.  You have the blood of your sire.  We have garlic and sage and the rest of it.  C’mon, babe, I need you to get up.”

Sarah let him help her up, the feel of his skin against hers almost too hot to handle.  He guided her to the kitchen counter.  It was spattered with blood, but she could work on it for this.  She shakily reached in the cabinet for a bowl.

“Good job, Sarah,” Bill murmured.  “I’m going to let Jimmy in now and we’re going to get rid of the bodies.  You just focus on making that potion.”

Potion.  Vampire cure.  When had this become her life?  Even after Griff and Lex left the first time, their lives had been fairly normal.  But that second visit by Lex…  Their lives would never be the same.

“I need…” she stuttered, “the iPad.  I need it.  It’s got the recipe.”

“I’ll get that for you when I let Jimmy in, babe,” Bill said.  All these pet names and epithets.  He must be terrified, Sarah realized.  Terrified of what he’d have to do if Sarah didn’t fix this cure properly.

Sarah realized she wasn’t terrified of that.  If they couldn’t cure her, _someone_ would have to put her down and she’d rather it be Bill than anyone else.

But she and Bill had plans: for their lives, for kids, for a future with a family.  She didn’t want to miss those.  She didn’t _want_ him to have to kill her.

Jimmy slunk in, shotgun still at the ready, but he lowered it when he saw the carnage.  “Damn,” he said.  “You really did a number on your kitchen.”

“Stay away from me, Jimmy,” Sarah warned without looking at him.  She could hear his breathing and his heartbeat and smell that Reuben sandwich he’d had for dinner.  And his blood.  She could smell that and it was delicious.  “They turned me.”

“But she’s working on the cure,” Bill added quickly, his own heart pounding in Sarah’s ear.  “We need to make these guys disappear.  After I get Sarah the iPad.”

Bill dashed down the hallway and Sarah could feel Jimmy staring at her warily.  “They turned you?” he asked finally.

Without thinking about it, Sarah felt her new fangs slide out.  “Yeah,” she said, turning around.  “They did.”

Jimmy recoiled from her.  Sarah would have recoiled too.  She concentrated and the teeth disappeared back into her gums.  She could still feel them there, however.

“There’s a cure that involves the blood of the one who turned me,” she pointed to the vampire at Jimmy’s feet.  “It’ll work as long as I haven’t fed.  And I’m _not_ going to do that.  Either this cure works or you and Bill do to me what we did to the other vampires.  I’m not going to become one of them.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Bill said firmly, returning with the iPad.  “It’s going to work.  You’re going to be okay.”

Sarah wasn’t so sure.  She’d never seen this potion in action and the first time making any potion was iffy.  She pulled up one of Lex’s innocuous-looking apps and skimmed the potions and spells until she reached Vampire Cure (Campbell Family).

Bill was right: they had all the ingredients.

She picked up a measuring cup and drained some of the vampire’s blood into it before mixing herbs and a few specialty ingredients into the cup.  She stirred it and looked at it distastefully, much as she imagined Jimmy’s face looked like now as he watched her.

“If this works, I’m gonna be sick for a few days,” she warned.  “And if it doesn’t, Bill…”

“No.”

Sarah turned to him.  “Bill, if it doesn’t work, I’d rather you do it than anyone else.  You’ve got the grace and the strength to make it quick and painless.  Please.  If you love me.”

Bill shook his head and she could smell the salt of his tears.  “Don’t ask that of me.  The cure’s gonna work.”

“Babe, please.  I need to trust you’ll do what has to be done.  Or I’ll figure out how to do it myself right now.”

Bill’s shoulders slumped and he reached out to her, hand hot on top of hers.  “I’ll do what needs to be done,” he said hoarsely.  “But _only_ if we can’t get the potion to work.  You can try more than once.  And I will damn well pray to Gabriel if I need to.  Sam and Dean have made it before; they can make it again.”

Sarah nodded.  That was as good an assurance as she was going to get.  She picked up the bowl and drank it.

God, the stuff was foul.

But it worked.

Her senses dulled and her strength disappeared.  She made it to the trash can to empty her stomach – now all liquid – before she slumped to the ground, dropping the glass cup, and shutting her eyes to stop the world spinning.  Her fangs came out and then slowly receded, the reverse of how they showed up in the first place.

Bill and Jimmy both were hovering over her when she opened her eyes again, blinking against the kitchen light.

“I feel like crap,” she rasped.  She concentrated on her fangs, trying to see if they still appeared.  They didn’t.  “But I think it worked.”

Sarah would have paid good money to have a picture of Bill’s face when she said that.  The sheer joy and relief was something to behold.  He reached down and kissed her forehead.

“Told you it’d work,” he said.

“Braggart.”  Sarah reached for his hand.  “Prop me up and get this place cleaned up.  I’d help if I could, but I don’t think I can stand right now.”

Bill and Jimmy propped her up against the cabinets and got to work.  They loaded the bodies into Bill’s SUV trunk and Jimmy drove off with it while Bill came back inside.

“Let’s get you out of those clothes and into bed,” he said, pushing her hair back from her face.

Sarah nodded, feeling feverish.  She wanted sleep first, but she didn’t want to dirty the bed with these clothes.

Bill helped her stand, then picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.  He undressed her and slipped a warm gown over her head.  Leaving her sitting on the bed, he got a hot washcloth and cleaned her face and hands and hair.

She was finally free of blood and bone and brain.  Bill pulled down the covers and she crawled in gratefully.  He kissed her temple when she rolled on her side.  “I love you,” he said.  “I love you too much to do what you asked me to.  I’m glad I didn’t have to.  I’d’ve been right behind you.”

Sarah laid a hand on his cheek.  “No you wouldn’t.  You’d’ve done it to me and Gabriel would have stopped you hurting yourself.  You’re the one with the guardian angel, remember?”

Bill shook his head.  “But the cure worked, so we don’t need to worry about that.”

“Just have to worry what I’m going to tell work this time.”

“Stomach flu,” Bill said.  “That’ll cover you for a few days.”

“Yeah.”  Sarah let her hand fall from his face and closed her eyes.  “’M going to sleep now.  G’night.  Love you.”

 

Bill watched Sarah fall asleep faster than she ever had before.  A sudden thought hit him and he carefully pulled back the dressing on Sarah’s bite wound: it was completely healed.  Her time as a vampire had done _that_ for her, at least.

His own clothes were still bloody, but he had cleaning to do before all the blood dried in the kitchen.  He got a rag and a bucket and started scrubbing until he couldn’t see any more blood.  Hopefully there’d never be any reason to use luminol in here, because it’d look like he and Sarah were serial killers.

He looked and the wallpaper by the garage door was, frankly, ruined with shot pellets, but they’d been meaning to strip and paint the walls anyway.  He’d _have_ to do it now.

Out in the garage, the door rolled open and Bill tensed.  It had to be Jimmy, returning his SUV, but he couldn’t be sure.  They’d killed ten vampires, the usual nest size, but what if this was an unusually large nest?

Bill was not up to fighting any more tonight.  If those were vampires out in his garage, he’d die here in the kitchen.

Of course, it was just Jimmy.  He dropped the keys into Bill’s hand and said, “Arm your wife next time.”

Bill laughed at that and couldn’t stop.  He knew he was hysterical after coming so close to losing Sarah in such a horrible way, but he couldn’t help himself.

Jimmy gripped his shoulder.  “Go to sleep, Bill.  We have work in the morning.  We have to take care of a vampire-free town and no one will ever thank us for it.”

Bill’s breathing was ragged by the time he reached the bedroom.  Sarah was so deep asleep even the last chuckles of his hysterical laugh didn’t wake her.  He plopped heavily on the bed, face in his hands.

A panic attack was starting, as he started to digest what had just happened and this time Sarah couldn’t be there for him.  He was alone again even though his wife was right next to him.

God, what if the cure hadn’t worked?  What if he’d had to…

Just the thought set him off shaking, images of Sarah dying conquering his brain.

Bill forced himself to breathe.  No matter what his brain was saying, they’d all survived.  Sarah was going to be okay.  They still had a future together.  He repeated these things like a mantra until his breath evened out.

Still shaky, he reached in the bedside table and pulled out a book of number puzzles.  He wasn’t great at math, so he didn’t do the hard ones, but he’d tried them at Sarah’s suggestion and it usually worked to distract his brain and disrupt the thoughts once he’d controlled his breathing.

He clicked his pen open and beside him, Sarah breathed slowly and steadily, fast asleep and safe again.

 

Over the next few days, Sarah slept.  Bill had a hell of a time trying to wake her for meals and baths and other necessities.  He fretted and worried over her, begrudgingly leaving her every day for work.

The third day, he came home to find Sarah sitting up, a little groggy but otherwise no worse for the wear.  Bill crawled on the bed next to her and pulled her close to cuddle.

“Did that really happen?” she asked.  “The… the vampire thing?  Or was it a nightmare?”

Bill stroked her hair and held her against his chest.  “Yeah, babe.  It happened.  But you’re okay now.  It even healed your bite and the scratches you got on your leg.”

“Huh,” Sarah said absently, as if she hadn’t really taken it all in.  “How long was I out of it?”

“About three days.”

“Three days?!”  Sarah sat up straight.  “What do they think at work?  Do I still have a job?”

Bill pulled her back down.  “It’s okay, darlin’.  I told them you had the flu and were too sick to come to the phone.  Joanna even brought soup by.”

Sarah relaxed back into him.  “Oh.  Okay.  As long as they don’t need a doctor’s note.”

Bill chuckled.  “Yeah, I don’t think Dr. Yates would write you an excuse for vampirism.”

“If we ever see Lex and Griff and the Winchesters again, we are never telling them this happened.”

Full-on laughing now, Bill kissed Sarah’s head.  “Alright, babe.  I won’t breathe a word.”

Sarah turned her face to him and Bill sobered at the look in her eyes.  “We really came close to losing everything there, didn’t we?” she asked softly.  “We were both ready to die and all because I didn’t hear that damned vampire behind me.”

“If they hadn’t turned you, they’d’ve turned me,” Bill said, trying to be practical and not remember his emotions that night.  “They wanted to use us against each other.”

“It almost worked.”

“Not after you took them out.”

Sarah shook her head.  “Team effort.”

Bill kissed her head again.  “It’s always a team effort.  And it always will be, especially if we have kids.”

“You still want them?  After that?”

“Of course,” Bill said incredulously.  “I love you like crazy and want to have a family with you.”

Sarah pondered that for a moment.  “I thought you’d change your mind.  That it’d scared you too much.”

“No,” Bill said slowly.  “If anything, when I thought about losing you – losing the possibility of a family – it made me realize just how much I wanted it.  I even wish we’d started earlier.”

Sarah leaned against him again.  “So do I.  Let’s get started now, while we can.”

“Now?” Bill asked, amused.

“Well, when I feel better,” Sarah clarified.  “But soon.”

“Soon,” Bill promised, meaning it with all his heart.  “In the meantime, let’s get some of Joanna’s soup in you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Good.”  Bill crawled off the bed and helped Sarah stand, steadying her with a hand behind her back.  “Then we face the world and enjoy a monster-free town while it lasts.”


	3. Ghosts

Peace lasted through ‘til spring.  Sarah returned to work after her bout with the “flu” and Bill continued to hover over her.

However, he _did_ keep to his part of the deal and let her in on any hunting that happened during that time.  She noted wryly that there wasn’t much to be done so that was easy for him; Jericho was quiet through the winter.  They once thought there was a ghoul, but it turned out to be a starving coyote that found a way into the local mortuary.

Bill also kept to their other agreement and one Saturday in mid-March, Sarah greeted him at the door with a small oblong box and a smile.

She could barely contain her excitement as he opened it and pulled out the positive pregnancy test.

It took Bill a minute to process, she could tell, and then his jaw dropped.  “Really?” he asked, so soft Sarah barely heard it.

“Really,” she assured him, beaming.  “I was right about that time.”  ‘That time’ had been in the garage against Bill’s workbench three weeks ago and something inside her just knew it’d worked.  Bill hadn’t believed her.

Bill set his hat down on the table and gathered her in his arms.  Face snuggled into the crook of her neck, he swore, “You’re never hunting again.”

Sarah laughed and pushed him away.  “I’m not giving up that easily.  I’m barely pregnant now. It won’t affect my hunting.”

“No,” Bill said.  “You’re too important to be risked from now on.  No hunting ever.”

Sarah stared at him, but this time Bill won the nonverbal argument.  She relented.  “Okay, I’ll back off.  Now, go get comfortable.  I think I found you a case.”

She swatted him on the bottom as he walked past her, rolling her eyes.  Of _course_ he’d immediately gone to hunting after her announcement.  He’d been convinced that all this quiet meant something big was moving their way.  Sarah, on the other hand, remembered Lex’s remark that their universe seemed to have fewer monsters yet the same number of hunters.  Monsters got the raw end of the ratio here.

Sarah sat at the kitchen table, pulling up news articles on the iPad, waiting for Bill to get back.  She wondered if he’d want to talk about the case or the baby.  She suspected the latter.

“How long?” he asked immediately, sliding into his seat at the head of the table.

“How until the baby gets here?”

Bill looked confused.  “Yes?”

His expression made Sarah grin fondly.  “If the internet is correct, we’ll have this baby around Thanksgiving.”

“Wow.”  Bill slumped in his chair a little.  “Wow,” he repeated.

Laughing, Sarah snapped her fingers in his face, getting his attention.  “Hey, this is what was supposed to happen, remember?”

“Yeah, but…  It’s actually happened.  You’re pregnant.  We’re going to have a baby.”

“Yes, we are,” Sarah said gently.  “You still okay with that?”

Bill reached out to grab her hand.  “More than okay.  But also terrified,” he admitted.

Sarah had to agree.  Looking away, she changed the subject.  “So now that I can only do research, I think I found a ghost between Goodland and the state line.  Here, look at these articles.”

Apparently Bill hadn’t been quite through goggling over her pregnancy, because it took him a minute to switch into hunter mode.  When he’d processed the information a little more, he turned to the iPad, tapping between tabs in the web browser.

“I remember this wreck,” he said.  “Just before Christmas, ten car MVA on the interstate.  Remember?  Jimmy went out to help and came back saying it was the worst wreck he’d seen in a long while?”

“I don’t remember that last part because neither of you told me,” Sarah pointed out, “but I remembered the wreck.  Look at these reports in the Star-News, though.  More wrecks – minor ones – and the drivers swear they see another car hurtling at them, so they swerve, usually into another car, the ditch, or the median.”

“You think it’s a death echo?”

“Could be.  Could be a regular ghost of one of the people who died in their car.  That’s what we need to figure out.”  Bill shot her a look and she corrected herself.  “That’s what you and Jimmy and Stanley need to figure out while I help from here.”

Bill leaned back in his chair.  “If Jimmy and I take out the patrol car, people won’t look twice at us hanging out on the side of the interstate.  We need to figure out who this is and if I see the car, maybe I can tell enough to look up the ghost at work.”

“You got your rock salt shells loaded?”  Sarah didn’t think this was a vengeful spirit, at least not yet, but she didn’t want Bill going out there unprepared.

“Yeah.”  Bill thought for a moment.  “I’ve been thinking of trying something with those.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, the Winchesters had silver shot and salt shot and bullets to trap demons and bullets to kill witches… but why separate all that?  Wouldn’t it be just as effective to make shells with both silver and salt?  And to fill the demon bullets with witch-killing potion?  And I’m sure I could figure out how to get holy water in there too so it doesn’t dissolve the salt.”

That wasn’t a bad idea, if it worked.  “Do you think it would change the efficacy of the bullets if they weren’t full of just one thing?”

Bill shrugged.  “It might.  But I can start experimenting and see.”

Sarah reached out for his hand.  “I’ll help you start loading some new ones, then.”

 

Bill and Jimmy sat out in the patrol car on the side of I-70 by mile marker thirteen, where the crash had been a couple months ago.  People passing slowed down, as usual, but if anyone wondered why a Jericho Sheriff’s car was on the wrong side of Goodland, no one stopped and asked.  Bill half thought a state trooper might have questions, but none drove by them.

They sat and chatted as usual.  Bill was bursting at the seams, wanting to tell Jimmy that Sarah was pregnant, but Sarah had put her foot down.  No telling anyone but parents until she’d passed the three month mark.

Nine weeks of keeping it to himself seemed like an eternity.  _How_ was he going to hide something from Jimmy that long?  They hadn’t even hid the existence of demons from him for more than a few days – and this was _good_ news.

Bill was sure Jimmy knew something was up, but said nothing.

At a quarter to eleven, both men perked up.  The crash had happened at 10:53, so they expected to see the ghost car at that time.

Thankfully, no cars drove by in those next eight minutes, so there wouldn’t be another crash.

Bill flicked on the spotlight, shining it across the road and waited.

At 10:53 exactly, a red Chevy pickup came skidding across the road on its side, right towards them.  If Bill didn’t know it was a ghost, he’d have been terrified.  No wonder people were still crashing!

The apparition happened a couple more times, until the clock ticked over to 10:54.

Definitely a death echo, Bill thought.  There wasn’t going to be a way to talk to the driver and shock him out of the cycle, so they were going to need to do the tried and true method of salting and burning the bones.

“I think I saw enough,” he told Jimmy, who nodded.

“I got a few numbers on that license plate.”

Bill was impressed.  He’d been focused on the driver – a faint resonance of a large man – and hadn’t thought to check the plates.  “Were they local?” he asked, hoping.

“Kansas tag, or that’s what it looked like.”

That was a relief.  Maybe they wouldn’t have to drive too far.

Bill turned off the spotlight and put the car in gear.  “Let’s go get some sleep and then find this guy tomorrow.”

Jimmy slid down in the passenger seat.  “I’m sleeping now,” he said.  “You volunteered to drive; you can stay up.”  The grin on his face told Bill he was trying to rile him up.

Bill didn’t take the bait.  “Need a lullaby to get to sleep there, Jimmy?  I’m sure I can croon you to sleep.”

“To nightmares, you mean!”

“I didn’t guarantee _good_ sleep.  Just sleep.”

Jimmy chuckled and closed his eyes.  Bill nosed out onto the interstate and began the forty-five minute drive home.

Sarah was asleep when he made it home.  He stood in the door of the bedroom, watching her for a few minutes, debating what to do.  Usually if he got home this late, he’d sleep on the couch and not bother her, but tonight…  Well, tonight he wanted to be close.

As quietly as possible, he stripped down to his boxers and slipped into bed.  Sarah murmured something in her sleep and rolled to face him without fully waking.  Bill let out the breath he’d been holding and lightly grasped her hand as he drifted off to sleep, too.

 

“Did you find anything?”  Jimmy leaned over to look at the laptop screen.

They were sitting at Murthy’s Noroco gas station just outside of town for two reasons: it deterred robberies by Jonah’s goons or other idiots and it was a handy place to park without feeling obligated to run the radar and catch speeders.

“I’m lookin’,” Bill muttered.  He’d requested the accident report from highway patrol and was waiting for it to come through to his work email.  In the meantime, he was looking at the articles on the accident Sarah had sent from the iPad.

There was a picture of the wreck in one Goodland Star-News article and Bill could just about make out a red truck amongst the carnage.  He showed the picture to Jimmy and got agreement.

At least that meant they were looking in the right direction.  Sarah had done her research well.  He had to admit he was lucky to have her backing him up, even if he didn’t want her actually facing any of these monsters again.

The laptop pinged and a popup showed Bill had an email from his contact – a former Academy roommate – at Kansas Highway Patrol.  “Here we go,” he said to Jimmy.  “Let’s see if Todd followed through.”

He had.  There was a summary report attached to the email that listed all the victims, their status, and their vehicles.

Perfect.

“There,” Jimmy said, pointing.  “Marlin Davis.  He was driving the red truck.”

Bill copied the license plate number into another program and pulled up Marlin Davis’ driver’s license information, complete with address.

“Menlo,” he said.  “I swear there’s only one cemetery there.”

“Heritage Memorial,” Jimmy said.  “One of Margaret’s parents’ friends was buried there earlier this year.”

“Wasn’t Marlin Davis, was it?” Bill grinned at Jimmy, amused and pleased at how easily this was coming together.

Jimmy laughed.  “No, an older lady.  But I’d bet money that’s where Davis is buried.”

“Guess we’re going out again tonight,” Bill said.

Jimmy laughed again.  “Oh no.  Stanley gets to go out with you tonight.  I lost enough sleep last night.  It’s his turn.”

Bill rolled his eyes, but he texted Stanley the basics.  _Gotta burn the bones of a ghost in Menlo tonight.  Need your help._

_Fuck that shit_.

_I’ll see you at ten at your place,_ Bill sent back, ignoring Stanley’s response.

“What’d he say?”

Bill shook his head.  “No, but he’ll do it.  He won’t be able to say no if I sic Sarah on him.”

 

“So it _is_ a death echo?”

“You were right about that one,” Bill confirmed over dinner.  “Stanley and I are going to go burn the bones tonight.  That _should_ take care of it.”

Sarah gave Bill a long look.  “You sound iffy on that.”

“I dunno,” Bill shrugged, in between bites of pot roast.  “I just worry that maybe this was too easy.”

“Hey, take easy where you can get it,” Sarah said.  “Don’t try to complicate things.  You sure you’ll have enough backup with just Stanley?”

Bill shot her a look.  “You’re not coming out there.”

“Not even as a driver to look out for the Sheridan County deputies?”

“Not even,” Bill said firmly.  “What you _can_ do is call Stanley and make sure his ass will actually be there.”

“Bill!” Sarah fussed.  “You didn’t check with him first?”

“He said no.  I said I’d pick him up.  Figured you could convince him for me.”  Bill spoke around a mouthful of potato.

Sarah put down her fork.  “You’ve got to stop assuming I can convince people of anything.”

“But you _can_ ,” Bill protested.  “You were fantastic at pretending to be FBI or whatever back in the other universe.”

“That doesn’t mean _you_ weren’t just as good.  And here, we don’t have to pretend to be authorities.  You’ve _got_ the authority, so my playacting isn’t an important skill.”

“It is when it gets me backup, since you are never allowed anywhere near a hunt again.”

Sarah rolled her eyes.  They were on day two of her being pregnant and he was already overbearingly protective.  What was Bill going to be like once she actually started showing?  “Fine,” she acceded.  “I’ll call Stanley after dinner and make sure he’ll go with you.  But if he doesn’t…”

“If he doesn’t, I’ll wait until Jimmy can come tomorrow night.”

“You’d let this ghost cause wrecks an extra night just to keep me from helping you shovel?”

“I’d do a lot more than that,” admitted Bill.  “But if you talk Stanley into it, none of that will matter.”

Picking up her fork again, Sarah sighed.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

 

“Stop getting your wife to do your dirty work,” Stanley said, clambering into Bill’s SUV that night.  “It’s not fair.  You know I can’t say no when Sarah starts in on how much you need backup.”

Grinning, Bill set off down the farm’s long driveway.  “It works, though.”

“Yeah, apparently.”  Stanley drummed his fingers on his leg.  He wasn’t his usual jovial self tonight.  He must have been serious about not wanting to come.  “Why isn’t she out here, though?  If it’s just a routine salt-and-burn, why isn’t she helping you?”

Bill was quiet for a moment.  The truth was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say it yet.  “Remember what happened our last hunt, back in December?  After I dropped you off?” he said instead.  “I’m never letting that happen again.”

Stanley judiciously didn’t roll his eyes – he knew how badly that hunt almost ended – but he did keep asking questions.  “But this isn’t dealing with a monster.  Just a ghost that’s not even located at the cemetery.”

“But the ghost might come when we try to put it to rest,” Bill said logically.  “It’s just a death echo, so it may not, but it might fight us.  And this ghost is in a truck skidding along the ground.  We’re going to have to be quick to stay out of its way.  It can probably hurt us.”

“Great,” Stanley said, leaning back.  “’It can probably hurt us,’ so you call me.  I’ve got a farm to take care of, man.”

“And I have a wife and Jimmy has a whole family.  Your point?”  Bill turned on the road that would take them to Menlo, right on the line between Jericho and Sheridan counties.

“My point is that this shit is dangerous and maybe we need to think about backing off some.”

Bill scoffed.  “We’ve only had two hunts since Sarah and I came back.  There’s not much here.  Over there, it’s every week, if not every day.”

Stanley shook his head.  “Just because it’s worse over there doesn’t mean you have to deal with it over here.  You said there are other hunters in the US.  Let them handle it.”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Bill said.  “I think once you become a hunter, you never stop.  You never _can_ stop, because you know what’s out there and innocent people don’t.  It becomes your duty to keep them safe.”

“Of course you bring it back to duty,” Stanley said.  “Okay, Bill.  I get it.  You feel required to do this and maybe I do a little, too.  But you can’t tell me you don’t wish it could go back to before.”

Bill thought.  Before they learned hunting, maybe.  But before they foiled the demon plot?  Before Lex helped Stanley save his farm?  “I can’t say I wish that.  Things might be tougher for us now, but that’s a few people compared to how many lives were saved by killing all those demons.”

“I wasn’t talking demons,” Stanley pointed out.  “I was talking monsters and ghosts and ghouls and all this crap.  Before you hopped universes, which is still a crazy thought.”

Shrugging, Bill stared at the road ahead.  “It happened, though.  So we’re stuck.  _You’re_ stuck, too.”

“I am, damn you,” Stanley muttered.

Silence filled the car for the rest of the twenty-minute ride.  Bill found the cemetery on the east side of town and pulled in.  He found an empty spot to park behind a tree – hopefully not immediately visible from the road.  He reached in the backseat and grabbed two flashlights and handed one to Stanley.  The rest of the gear was in the trunk and they’d get it later.  For now, the the two split up, covering more ground to find Marlin Davis’ grave.

“Got it!” he heard Stanley call after about fifteen minutes.

Bill jogged back to the SUV and brought it over to the gravesite.  His friend was right: there was a newer headstone, proclaiming Marlin Davis’ name.  A pit formed in Bill’s stomach when he was there was a second space on the headstone, filled in with a female’s name and birth date, but no death date.  Marlin had left a widow, who would probably be horrified at what he and Stanley came here to do.

Still, that couldn’t stop them.  Bill stuck his shovel in the ground and started digging, hoping the funeral home hadn’t buried him the full six feet deep.  Stanley followed suit and both men shoveled until they were sweating and stinking, even in the cool night air.

Stanley stood and wiped his brow.  “How much deeper you think?  It’s been two hours, at least.”

“Hopefully not much more,” Bill said.  He got his wish: a few shovelfuls later and he hit a concrete slab – the vault.

Quickly, they uncovered the rest of the vault and managed to lift up the lid.  Inside was a nice coffin, maybe mahogany – and inside that, a decomposing body.  The smell was horrific.

They had a job to do, however.  Bill reached in a satchel he’d grabbed from the car and pulled out a bottle of kerosene and a bag of rock salt.  He handed the salt to Stanley and they started covering the corpse.

A loud screeching noise filled the air and Bill peeked out of the grave just in time to duck.  The death echo was happening here and aimed straight at him, looking incredibly solid.  The echo repeated, but this time, it crashed – very physically – into Bill’s car, knocking it on its side.  The two vehicles slid a ways across the graveyard, pulling up grass and knocking down headstones.

“My car!” Bill cried plaintively.

“Stop staring at it!” Stanley hissed.  “Light the matches!”

Stanley was right.  Bill fumbled in the satchel until he found a book of matches.  He lit them as he heard the echo start again, crashing into his car one more time.  Wincing, he tossed the matches into the coffin and the body went up in a blaze.

“Please let this have worked, please let this have worked,” he muttered sotto voce.

The body went up in flames and the only sound in the cemetery was the crackling of the fire.

Bill and Stanley held their noses long enough for the body to turn to ash, then closed the coffin back up and climbed out of the grave.  The sides of the grave were a little taller than Bill, but he was able to pull himself out of the hole anyway – thank you Academy fitness tests.  He even gave Stanley a hand getting started climbing out.

The SUV stood on its side a few hundred feet from where he’d originally parked it, passenger side caved in.  Bill wondered idly if it was still drivable.  It wasn’t road-worthy, but if it could last long enough to get the two of them home….  Maybe there was something he could do about it.  Maybe it was totaled.

“Hey, stop mourning your car and let’s get this guy covered back up before anyone shows up,” hissed Stanley, shaking Bill from his thoughts.

Together, they recovered the grave quicker than they’d uncovered it – the idea of home and bed spurred both men on.

Stanley helped Bill push his car right side up again and looked at the passenger side.  “I think I’m riding behind you if this thing runs.”

Bill turned the keys and the engine sputtered to life.  There was a rumble and a clunking sound he didn’t like, but he thought it’d get them home.

Thank goodness Stanley’s farm was on the way.  As long as they made it there, he was good.  He could get home.

Sputtering the whole way, the SUV took him to Stanley’s and then to the Jericho town limits, less than a mile from home, before it died.  Permanently, Bill thought.

Bill abandoned the car, taking his weapons and some of the hard-to-explain objects with him.  He called into the office and, by way of dispatch, let Riley and Salem know the car was there.  He’d let the wrecker service guy sleep and deal with it in the morning.  _He_ wanted sleep, too.  At least it would be Sunday and he could stay in bed a little longer.

Sarah must have heard his key scratch in the door, because she was waiting for him in the hallway, bleary-eyed.  “Where’s the car?”

“Victim of a ghost wrecking _his_ car,” Bill said, and explained what’d happened.

Sarah grasped his hands, still dirty from digging.  “I’m so sorry.  I know you loved that SUV.”

“Guess I needed to upgrade sooner or later,” Bill said, trying not to get emotional over a vehicle.

Squeezing lightly, Sarah pulled his hands to her.  “We’ll get one of those trucks you’ve been looking at.  We can go look tomorrow after church if you want.”

“Yeah, babe.”  He fought back a yawn.  “We’ll do that.  Just not too expensive.  We’ll need all the money we can get for the baby.”

Sarah smiled softly at him.  “We’ll get what you need for what you do.  We’ve got Lex’s money, remember?”

“You know I hate using that, but I guess we’ll have to,” Bill said, dog-tired all of a sudden.  “I need to clean up and we need to get to bed.”

Sarah put an arm around his waist and led him to the master bath.  “Need some help showering?” she asked coyly.

Bill eyed her to see if she was serious.

She was.

He took her up on the offer.

 

The reports of phantom car sightings on I-70 stopped as suddenly as they’d begun.  Once again, Bill knew no one would ever know he’d taken care of it.  Probably never even know that there was something to be taken care of – it was all cases of drivers nodding off from road fatigue, right?

Sarah drove him to Hays to go car shopping after church, as promised, but only after a quick argument over who would drive.  Sarah finally won because it was her car.  Thankfully, she stuck to the speed limit without Bill having to remind her.

They grabbed a late lunch and spent the afternoon at all the different dealerships, to no avail.

At one, Bill didn’t trust the salesman, finding him too pushy.

He thought he found a good truck at the second dealership, but Sarah less than tactfully pointed out that he was too short to reach over the sides into the bed locker without a stepstool.  He reddened and quickly walked away from the truck.  Where had that come from?  Sarah had _never_ teased him about his height before.  He got an apology, but it didn’t feel quite genuine.

“What was that about, really?” he asked on the way to the third dealership.  “You could have waited until the sales lady was gone.”

Sarah surprised him, again.  “Just hovering over you like you’re hovering over me the last couple days.”

Bill gaped.  “That’s _all_ that was?  I’ve been irritating?”

“Bill, you’ve been worse than irritating.  I understand why you’re being protective, but you’re being overly so.  I’m not made of porcelain just because I’m pregnant.  The baby’s not going to break if I do more than sit quietly.  You’ve got to let me stay involved.”

“You were the one who promised to quit hunting when you got pregnant,” Bill pointed out.

“That was before you started treating me like I can’t do anything because of it and bringing it up every morning.  I agree, there will definitely come a time where I’ll be unable to hunt, but I don’t like being shut out.”

“You’re not shut out,” Bill said, confused.  “You’re still doing the research.”

“But I want to be out there a little, too, right now.  Maybe I’m hypomanic, but I’m not satisfied being the researcher.”

Bill pulled into the dealership and found a parking spot.  He looked at Sarah closely.  “ _I_ can’t handle having you out there right now,” he admitted.  “Every time I go out, it’s to keep you safe.  I keep seeing you as a vampire and I’m terrified it’ll happen again.  What happens if you get hurt and it makes you lose the baby?  If you’re bit by a vampire or a werewolf?  I have two of you to protect now and the way to do that is for you to stay home.”

Sarah reached over and grabbed his hand.  “I know you’re scared.  So am I, to be honest.  But we can’t let that stop us.  Remember, I’ve trained more than Jimmy and Stanley are.”

“But you’re also trained in research skills I wasn’t,” Bill pointed out.  “The Winchesters set us up so we’d work as a team, with me in the active role.”

“Believe me, my training wasn’t that passive,” Sarah argued.  “I don’t have leg problems any more thanks to Gabriel.  I can run again.  I can shoot better than I ever have.  I can tell you weaknesses of what we’re facing.  I’m not as strong or as fast as you since I don’t have any grace, but neither do Stanley and Jimmy – and they can’t do things that I can.”

Bill knew Sarah wasn’t as strong or as fast as he was for other reasons, too, but he’d never mention them.  Unlike her and his height, apparently.

That still stung.

He was tired of arguing, though.  He got out of the car without another word.

This time, he found a truck he liked that was four wheel drive _and_ had a bar you could stand on to reach things in the truck bed.  He stood on the side of one and shot Sarah a look.

She shrugged at him.

Bill huffed and turned back to the salesman.  “Let’s take it for a spin.”  He wanted to see how quiet it was.  Sarah climbed in next to him with the salesman in the back.  Miraculously, the engine didn’t roar like he thought it would.

Imagining how he would fit out the trunk locker with hunting gear, Bill’s reverie was interrupted by Sarah talking to the salesman.

“So will a carseat fit in the back there?  That’s going to be important.”

Bill’s foot faltered on the gas pedal for a second.  He _was_ going to have baby stuff in his new truck along with hunting gear.  He’d have to come up with safe ways to hide weapons from the kid when they got bigger.  And could he locate a white witch to make up some of what the Winchesters called “extra crunchy” hex bags to stick in carriers and carseats and cribs?

His thoughts must have shown on his face, because Sarah gave him an odd look.  “You know you can have a carseat _and_ still go out hunting.”

The salesman nodded.  “With the all wheel drive, you can reach just about any deer stand in the state.”

“Yeah, deer,” Bill said, longing for the days that was the only thing he hunted.  “Wonder what the deer will think if they see the carseat?” he asked, giving Sarah a significant look.

“Ideally, they won’t.”

“When does ideal ever happen?”  Bill felt sorry for the poor salesman, who had no way to properly follow their conversation.

The salesman tried to change the subject, obviously sensing the tension.  “Do you have kids already?” he asked.

“One on the way,” Sarah said.  “Our first, so we’re a little nervous.”

On firmer ground, the salesman laughed.  “I understand.  I have two of my own.”

“And you’d feel safe driving them in this truck?” Bill asked.

“Oh yes.  It received top safety ratings from Consumer Reports.”

Bill looked at Sarah, hoping for an opinion.  She shrugged, but it was an agreeable one.

“Do you have this in a dark green or a black?” he asked.

Bill walked out an hour later with the keys to a fully paid for truck.

Thanks, Lex.

 

Sarah was quiet on the drive home, following Bill in his new truck.  She didn’t even bother turning on the radio.

Arguing with Bill didn’t make her happy, but neither did the way he was being too overprotective.  How could she make him see that she wasn’t incapacitated just because she was pregnant – and so newly pregnant, too?

She’d promised to quit hunting, she remembered that, but she was regretting it.  She wanted to be out there while she could.  After the baby was born, she knew she’d be stuck at home while Bill hunted.  And as much as she loved Jimmy and Stanley and trusted them, they didn’t have Winchester training.

Sighing, she reset her grip on the steering wheel.  Sarah felt bad for mentally disparaging Jimmy and Stanley’s skills and dedication to protecting Bill.  They were all practically family.

But Bill needed to recognize that she didn’t need as much protection as he thought she needed.  He needed to understand that it was okay for her to still see action from time to time.

And Sarah needed to remember that Bill was coming from a place of love.  Some of his points were salient: within a few months, it would be unwise for her to hunt.  She was in charge of keeping two lives safe, not just her own.

Another sigh, this one more resigned.  When they got home, she’d have to apologize.

The new truck barely fit in the garage, but by the time Sarah pulled in next to him, Bill had made it work.  He waited for her by his workbench.  He didn’t look as happy as he should have with a new truck and the opportunity to fix it up as a proper hunter’s vehicle.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said as soon as she shut her car door.

“For what?” Bill asked, a bit contritely.

Sarah was taken aback.  Bill Koehler was usually the least passive-aggressive person she knew.  He’d speak his mind even if it was unpopular.  Sometimes especially so.  For him to act like this, he must really be upset.  Sarah’d better play along.

“For making that comment,” she said, feeling her mood crash even as she spoke.  “For arguing with you about hunting when you’re just trying to keep me and the baby safe.  I get where you’re coming from.  But I want you to understand my side of it, too.  Can I ask that much?”

“There’s not much to understand,” Bill said.  “You promised to sit out hunts once you got pregnant and now you’re asking me to forget that.  Asking me to let you get into danger again.  And I can’t even tell Jimmy or Stanley _why_ I’m asking more of them instead of hunting with you.”

Sarah shoulders slumped.  Bill was right: she _was_ trying to renege on a promise.  Still…  “You’re being overbearing about it,” she argued softly, voice gaining strength as she went.  “I know you’re trying to protect me, but my God, Bill, you’re acting like I’ll die if I get a bruise.  We’ve known for just a couple of days and you’ve already managed to alienate me.  I swear you don’t even want me doing research.  I don’t want to be left out of hunting if it’s on those terms.  I _can’t_ be left out on those terms.”

Bill glared at her.  “I am _trying_ to protect you and our child the best way I know how.  I’m sorry if you can’t see or appreciate that.”  He pushed past her into the house, leaving Sarah standing uselessly in the garage.

She slumped back against her car, tempted to get back in and take a drive somewhere to give Bill time to cool off.  She could use some time alone, too, really.

Driving it was, then.

 

Bill heard the garage door open again and glanced out the front to see Sarah’s car leaving the driveway.

Why was she so upset over this?  She’d _promised_.  All he was doing was holding her to that.  Why wasn’t she as worried about the baby as he was?

If they couldn’t agree on this, if Sarah was going to insist on hunting the rest of their lives, maybe the baby was a mistake.

Bill shook his head and rubbed his face with his hands.  Had he really just had _that_ thought?  What kind of future father was he to think like that?

Jesus.  This was all too real for him right now.  Every time he thought of Sarah hunting, he thought about her becoming a vampire and asking him to kill her.  And then his brain inevitably jumped straight to the idea that they were about to become parents – parents who hunted supernatural monsters in their spare time.  Parents who risked their lives multiple times a year.  Technically his job put him in danger every day, but it wasn’t the same as hunting.  Policing was almost never a fight to the death.

Fuck, maybe _he_ needed to quit hunting as well.

Was that possible, now that he knew?  Now that he’d dedicated two years to being trained?  He didn’t think it was.

Maybe that’s what Sarah was feeling.

Bill collapsed in his recliner, wracking his brain for what to do next.

 

He was still there, thinking, when Sarah got home.

She nodded at him in greeting as she passed the living room, but didn’t say anything.

Bill wasn’t sure what to say either.

After a few minutes, he got up and followed her.  Sarah was standing outside the office, staring through the door.

“I think we can move the guest bed in here if we shift our computer desks to one side,” she said, no hint of their earlier arguments.  “That’ll free up the guest room to be a nursery.  What do you think?”

“Sarah…” he started but she cut him off.

“No.  I’m tired of arguing, Bill.  We should be celebrating right now and instead we’re at an impasse.  I’d rather talk about moving furniture and buying cribs and all the things that _should_ be on our minds.”

“No,” Bill said back to her.  “We’ll discuss that, but I’m not through talking with you.”

She gave him a look.  “Could have fooled me, the way you stalked off.”

“I did,” Bill acceded.  “I needed to think.”

“And did you?” she asked wryly.

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice.  “I did.  And I need you to realize that I’m never going to be able to forget the vampire thing.  That terrified me.  Even without the baby, I want you out of hunting so we never have to go through that again.  I’d’ve _still_ pushed you to sit out this last hunt.

“But I know _I_ couldn’t quit now.  Not with what we know and the training we have.  I think I can understand why you don’t want to stop.  And I’m willing to compromise.”

Sarah looked at him curiously.  “Compromise how?”

“Let’s put off your retirement date until you’re comfortable telling people about the baby.  I don’t know if anything will happen in the next three months, but if it does, I won’t make you stay home.  After that, though, I don’t want you doing anything but research.  Can we agree on that?”

It took Sarah a moment to answer.  “Yes,” she said finally.  “I think I can agree to that.  Can you treat me like normal and not like I’m going to shatter into a million pieces any second?”

Bill’s mouth twitched into a small smile.  “I can try.  That’s all I can promise.”

“I’ll take it.”  Sarah reached her hand out and Bill took it gratefully.


	4. Eric

To Sarah’s great disappointment, the next eight weeks passed uneventfully.  Sarah managed to avoid morning sickness, though she was prone to headaches from strong smells.

She still had a week before the three month mark, though, and was stalking the news sites obsessively looking for a hunt.  She knew Bill hoped she wouldn’t find one, but Sarah wanted a last bit of action before she was put out to pasture.

Almost as soon as her last week started, she got a hit on one of the demon-watching forums Lex had shown her – and this one seemed legit.

Legit _and_ close.

She watched the YouTube video that was shared to the forum and she knew she had a case.

Bill was going to simultaneously love and hate this.

When he got home from work, she played the video for him.

“Well, shit,” he said.

“It’s him.”

“What the hell is Eric doing in Denver?  And showing up on TV?”

“It was obviously a mistake.  He was pissed about being stopped by the reporter – that’s why his eyes flashed.  But he’s in Denver.  We’ve got the angel blades now.  You know what we’ve got to do.”

“We have to go find him,” Bill agreed reluctantly.

“Yes, _we_ do,” Sarah said, emphasizing the relevant word.

Bill gave her a worried glance, but didn’t comment on her reminder.  “Do we go for angel blades right away?  Shouldn’t we try to exorcise him?  He _is_ the mayor’s son.”

Sarah shrugged.  “We’ll do what we have to, I guess.”

“How are we going to find him in Denver?  It’s huge!  And what if he’s already left?”

“That’s where the stuff Lex taught me comes in handy,” Sarah pointed out.  “It’s probably pretty reasonable to assume he’s staying or working near the area the news video was filmed – why else would he be walking on the sidewalk?  I can investigate some of the businesses and apartment buildings in the area from here.  Maybe even get security footage of the day it happened.”

Bill nodded.  “Probably good to stay away until we know where he is.  Don’t want to scare him off.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said slowly.  “There’s always the chance I won’t be able to get what I need and we have to go in and check things out in person, you know.  You think you can get a couple days off?  Can you be open about it or does your sister need to have an emergency that requires us to visit?”  She wanted to check; Bill hated lying to Sheriff Dawes, but sometimes it was necessary.

He was quiet for a moment.  “I think I can be open about it, especially if I say we’re trying to save Eric.”

“Then I guess exorcism is our priority,” Sarah said with some finality.

 

Idling the car in a parking lot off of 3rd Street, Bill told Jimmy what Sarah had found the night before.

“Eric?  Really?”

“Really,” Bill confirmed.  “Still a demon, too.”

“Damn,” Jimmy said.  “I thought we’d never see him again.  I wonder why he didn’t go farther away.”

Bill shrugged.  “I guess he figured Denver was big enough, none of us would ever find him.”

“You think there are other demons there, too?  Another plot?”

A chill ran down Bill’s back at that.  “I hope not.  Sarah’s supposed to be checking that out today since she’s off work.”

“You need my help?”  Jimmy sounded serious but cautious; it was obvious he didn’t want to tangle with any more demons.

Good old Jimmy for offering anyway.  “I’ve only got the two angel blades – one for me and one for Sarah.  I couldn’t send you in unarmed.”

Jimmy gave Bill a side-eye.  “You’re taking Sarah?  What happened to keeping her out of the action?  You were pretty vehement about that a couple months ago.”

Bill felt cornered.  At least he only had to lie for another week.  “Sarah made her opinions on that well-known.  And she is the one with the multiple exorcisms memorized.”

That got a nod from Jimmy.  “Margaret would give me an earful, too, if she was trained and forced to sit out.  As it is, I just get fussed at for letting you drag me into this at all.”

Bill realized he’d never asked Jimmy what he’d told Margaret.  He did now.

“Everything, of course.  I’m not going to sneak around on her.  She needs to know what’s out there.”

“She know about the two years?”

“She knows.  She’s keeping quiet until Sarah decides to talk about it, though.”

Maybe he should encourage Sarah to confide in Margaret, Bill thought.  As it was, she really had no one but Bill to discuss supernatural stuff with – and that wasn’t exactly the best arrangement, he’d learned.  As much as he may want to, he couldn’t be everything to Sarah.  She needed her girlfriends, too.

Conversation drifted on to other topics and soon their shift was up.  Bill filed his reports for the day and took a deep breath.  He knocked on the sheriff’s door.

Sheriff Dawes looked up and waved Bill in, gesturing for him to sit.  “Let me guess.  There’re more things that go bump in the night that you need to tell me about?”

Bill allowed himself a half-grin.  The last time he’d come to the sheriff like this, he’d let him in on the existence of things beyond demons.  “Nothing new, sir.  But my wife has found Eric Green.  And he’s still a demon.”

Dawes’ eyebrows went up.  “Alone?”

“We’re figuring that out now.  But in a day or so, I’ll need some time off to go deal with it.  I need to try to exorcise the demon in Eric, see if we can save him.  And if not...”  Bill left the possibility go unremarked.

The sheriff nodded.  “It’d be good to get Eric back.  The mayor would be happy, for sure.  Where is he?”

“Denver, of all places.”  Bill pulled out his phone and showed Sheriff Dawes the YouTube video Sarah had found.  “See how his eyes flash at the beginning?  Still a demon.”

Dawes leaned back in his chair.  “Bill, son, I don’t know why you’ve appointed yourself the man in charge of all the supernatural critters around here, but I suppose I can cover you for a couple days.  You keep me updated, you hear?”

“Yes, sir.”  Bill hadn’t told the sheriff about his years training, and didn’t plan to.  “I’ll let you know as soon as I know my own plans.”

 

She’d stared at her computer all day and her eyes were tired.  Sarah glanced at the clock; it was thirty minutes to an hour until she expected Bill home.  Time enough for a short nap.

Curling up on the couch with Sadie at her feet, Sarah fell asleep quickly.

She woke to Bill playing with her hair from his recliner, only an inch or two away from the end of the couch.  Sarah smiled.  “Morning,” she whispered.

“Have a good nap?” Bill asked.

“Short one,” she answered, reluctantly sitting up.  “But good.  Come on to the office.  I’ll show you what I found.”

Bill pulled his computer chair up behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder so he could see the screen, too.  Sarah reached up and fondly caressed his hair for a moment, just enough so he’d know he was welcome to stay there.

“Okay, so,” Sarah began.  “I know you don’t want all the details, but I was able to find street signs in the video.  They were at a bad angle, but I was still able to track down where the video was taken.  I performed Lex’s computer magic and found a security camera from a convenience store next door to an apartment complex and voila!  Eric going in and out of the complex.”  She ran the relevant portions of the security feed for Bill.

“That sounds too easy.  What’s the catch?”

Ah, Bill and his suspicious mind.  “Well, for one, we don’t know if any other demons are there.  I didn’t see anything odd about the other tenants, but Eric is living so low I never would have tagged him if I didn’t know.”

“And?”

“And the building is locked and only tenants have the key.  Guests can be buzzed in, but I doubt Eric is going to welcome us.”

“You think we should trap him at home?” Bill asked.

Sarah lifted her free shoulder in a shrug.  “It makes sense.  Less of an audience.  If we could break in while he’s gone, we could paint devil’s traps in various locations.  Maybe a few sigils to help us, too, since the demon in Eric seemed to be a strong one.”

She could feel Bill’s frown against her shoulder.  “Breaking and entering again,” he sighed.  “Someday this side job is going to lose me my _real_ job.”

“Speaking of?” Sarah prompted.  She knew Bill would know the rest of the question.

He did.  “Sheriff said okay, probably _because_ it’s Eric.  So we’d better hope exorcism works.”

“Good, because I called already and made us reservations at a cheaper hotel a couple miles away.”

“Cheap- _er_?”  Sarah imagined the eyebrow quirk.

“You’re looking at downtown Denver.  It’s not as expensive as some cities, but it isn’t dirt cheap, either.  We want to have somewhere to retreat to close by, so I went with the cheapest option.  It’s a Comfort Inn and only $85 a night.”  That was pretty darn cheap for a decent hotel in a downtown area, but it was still a lot to throw at their regular budget.  They had the funds Lex left them, but Bill was determined that was the college/retirement fund and wouldn’t touch it unless it was an emergency, like losing his car a couple months ago.

“Just the one night?” Bill asked tentatively.

“I figure we leave early tomorrow, break in, do our thing, and then crash at the hotel before driving back the next day.  If things go well, that is.”

Groaning, Bill leaned back.  “Why’d you have to say that?  You just jinxed it!”

 

They left before daybreak, with only a little complaint from Sarah.  It was important to get to Denver early enough to see Eric leave his apartment so they didn’t walk into an obvious trap – the kind they hoped Eric was relaxed enough to walk into.

Sarah navigated while Bill drove the three and a half hours and found them a car lot within walking distance of their hotel and Eric’s building.

“What do you think a demon does all day when it’s in hiding?” Bill muttered as they sat in the car waiting.

Sarah shrugged.  “Could be anything.  But looking at the floorplans for these apartments, I’d bet it’s leveraging Eric’s law degree and working a good job.  Blending in and all that.”

“And you’re sure he’s the only demon in the building?”

Sarah looked at the iPad, where she’d pulled up the camera from the convenience store on the corner.  “I ran backgrounds on a handful of other residents – the single ones, mostly – and didn’t find anything weird that would make me think demon.  I think they really did scatter when we ran them out of town.”

Bill hmphed.  “They shoulda.  Just let them try to come back to Jericho.  We know how to deal with them now.”

Smiling fondly, Sarah said, “Yes, dear,” while she stared at the camera feed.

That got a laugh from Bill.  “It’s like that, is it?”

“I’m trying to concentrate, babe.  I don’t want to miss Eric coming out of the building and I don’t want him walking this direction.”

Bill sat quietly for a moment, but that was apparently all he could manage.  “Why do we keep calling it Eric?  It’s a demon.  Eric’s not in control.”

“But Eric’s still in there,” Sarah said patiently.  “And we don’t know if he willingly let the demon in or not.  Nor what the demon’s used him for since.  But innocent until proven guilty and all that.”

“Yeah.  All that,” grumped Bill.  “Except demons are guilty just because they’re demons.  I don’t care what the Winchesters said about that Meg.  I don’t think demons can redeem themselves.”

“Babe.  Concentrating,” Sarah chided, though she was still smiling.  She’d heard this rant before.  Some days, she seriously considered cataloguing and numbering Bill’s various rants.  There’d be a whole host of new ones when the baby got here, she was sure.

Bill slumped in the driver’s seat, finally letting silence fall over the car.

At 7:25 exactly, Eric – or the demon wearing Eric – emerged from the building.  He walked to the convenience store, away from the car lot, and stopped for a coffee.  Sarah held her breath until he emerged again two minutes later and took a right around the corner.

Quickly, she switched camera feeds and watched Eric walk to a light rail station entrance.  Holding up a finger to tell Bill to be ready, but wait, she watched until he was inside.

She hadn’t pre-hacked into the RTD system’s cameras and Sarah silently cursed herself.  Wishing Lex had been there to remind her, she worked as fast as she could and got in the Colorado Station’s cameras just as Eric boarded a northbound train.

Sarah breathed again.  “He’s gone.”

Bill unclicked his seatbelt.  “What are we waiting for?”

 

Bill pulled a small suitcase out of the trunk of the SUV and Sarah slung a backpack over her shoulders – some sleek black thing that looked like it should be carrying laptops and legal briefs.  It didn’t fit what Bill thought of as a backpack: it wasn’t baggy or beat up enough.

Despite his disapproval, he had to admit it fit in with downtown Denver during the morning commute.  Sarah’d worn a business pantsuit and made him wear a suit as well.  It didn’t give him the freedom of motion he’d prefer, but they blended in perfectly.  Exactly as the Winchesters had taught them.

As they neared the apartment building, Bill went on alert.  Looking for demons, of course, but also people exiting Eric’s building.  He bumped into a frazzled-looking mom wrestling two kids and apologized profusely.  Sarah apologized for his clumsiness as well and helped her catch a toddler runaway.

That could be him or Sarah in a few years.  Bill felt bad pickpocketing her, but they needed a keycard to get in.  He’d drop it off with the doorman when they left.

The doorman.  Their next hurdle.  Sarah turned on the charm and the accent and smiled at him after they used the keycard to open the door.  “Hi, I’m Jessie and this is my husband Ben.  We’re visiting Melissa Rogers.  She’s an old college buddy of mine and said she could put us up while we visit Denver.  Air bed, of course, since she’s only got the one bedroom, but I think we’re going to have fun.  Ben’s got an interview and–”

The doorman obviously didn’t care to hear that much information and waved them in immediately after hearing the resident’s name.  Bill wasn’t sure he even listened to the rest – which was just what Sarah intended.  Bore him with detail and make him want to hurry them along.

“Melissa Rogers?” Bill asked quietly, as they waited for an elevator.

“Lives across from Eric.  Nurse at the University Hospital, night shift.  It made a believable story.”

“So we just have to hope she doesn’t wake up and leave before Eric comes home.  She’d blow our story if the doorman mentions us.”

“Even if she does, we’ll already be in Eric’s apartment.”

Bill frowned.  “That’s still a complication I don’t like.  How do we get out after?”

“Fire exit,” Sarah said simply.  “It’ll set off the alarm and we can slip out in the hubbub.”

“And if they’re waiting in the hallway instead of at the entrance?”

Sarah paused as the elevator doors opened, moving aside to let people exit.  When they were alone again, on their way up to the sixth floor, she spoke.  “Then we have a problem.  Hand to hand if we can, but if not… that’s why you have your Taser and we’re both armed.”

Bill side-eyed Sarah as the floors dinged by.  “I hope you’re not expecting me to do anything like the fights on that Daredevil show you watched over there.”

Sarah grinned, biting her lip.  Bill knew she enjoyed that show more than she should and looked forward to the second season’s release in their own universe.  He was a little jealous, to be honest.

The elevator stopped and jerkily opened its doors.

The hallway was quiet.  Bill grabbed Sarah’s hand and led her forward purposefully.

“Apartment 6F,” Sarah whispered.  “Should be to the right.”

Bill followed her instruction and found the apartment.  Just as Sarah had predicted, it locked with a traditional key.

Sarah slung her backpack off and pulled out a lockpick kit.  Bill watched her work, praying there wasn’t an alarm system in the apartment.  Sarah hadn’t found one when she hacked into the building’s internet and phone systems, but it could always be on a dedicated line she hadn’t found.

The door opened with a creak.  No alarm sounded.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and Bill realized she’d been scared of the same thing he was.

They hurried into the apartment, closing and locking the door behind them.  Bill did a cursory glance around for traps while Sarah did the same for other alarm systems, just as they’d planned.

As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anything to worry about.  It looked like a grungy bachelor pad; apparently the demon in Eric wasn’t that neat.

“All clear,” Sarah said.  “You?”

Bill nodded.  “We’re good unless the trash and flies are hiding something.”

Sarah snorted.  “That’d be a first.  And you don’t sense any… demons or anything around us?”

Bill touched his chest for a moment and focused on the ever-present warmth.  It pulsed gently.  “Nope.”

“Good.”  She gestured to the suitcase.  “Ready to get started?”

 

Two hours later, Bill and Sarah collapsed on Eric’s couch, admiring their work.  They’d completely obliterated Eric’s security deposit:  carpets ripped up to paint devil’s traps and then placed back to hide them, sigils painted on the wall to weaken demons and amplify exorcisms, and the house tossed to look for weaponry.

Surprisingly, Eric the demon hadn’t gone much in for protecting himself.  All they found was a 9mm handgun in the bedside table.  Bill examined the ammo:  silver.  What was he worried about?

Then again, Bill had silver ammo on him.  He didn’t plan to use it, though – both he and Sarah had devil’s trap bullets for that today.

Hopefully they wouldn’t need any of it.

Sarah picked up a pile of unopened mail from the footstool.  She laughed.  “He wasn’t trying too hard to hide, was he?”  She held up a letter addressed to an Eric Brown.

Bill shrugged.  “Were you tracking that name?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Sarah said.  “But do you know how many Browns are out there?”

“Maybe he didn’t _have_ to try so hard, then.”

“I’d’ve found him,” Sarah protested.  “Eventually.”

Bill squeezed her knee.  “I know.  So what do we do until he gets back?”

“Wait?” Sarah suggested.  “Watch some local TV?  I’ll keep monitoring the store’s cameras for Eric’s return.”

An entirely inappropriate thought occurred to Bill.  He leaned over and kissed Sarah.  “Ever done it on a demon’s bed?”

She laughed, not taking him seriously.  “Bill,” she fussed lightly.  “Not funny.”

“Hey, it’d pass the time,” he protested.

“You’re serious.”  Sarah leveled her gaze at him, apparently thinking.

He leered at her.  What would she say?

Laughing again, Sarah set the iPad down.  “Well, it’ll definitely be a first.  Hopefully also a last.”

 

Sarah straightened her clothes and sat down on the couch again.  She couldn’t believe she’d let Bill talk her into sex while they were on a hunt.  It was the suit, she decided.  She’d never been able to resist him in a suit.  And the undertones of danger _had_ made it pretty spectacular, though.  She couldn’t deny that.

Glancing at the clock, she estimated they had another four hours before Eric returned.  Sarah picked up the iPad again and scanned through the footage of the time they were, well, busy.  No Eric.  Nothing suspicious.

This was all going too easily so far.

Bill apparently thought the same.  He lounged languidly next to her, body relaxed, but she could see in his eyes that his brain was racing.

Sarah reached for his hand and he squeezed it lightly.  “Whatcha thinking about, babe?”

He grinned at her and she knew he was attempting to deflect a little.  “Nothing much after all that.”

She bumped their hands against his leg, giving him a look.  He knew better than to try and trick her on this stuff, but still he tried.  She suspected he thought he was protecting her.

Sighing, Bill relented.  “Four hours is just a long time to wait.  For things to go wrong.  To _think_ about things going wrong.”

“Things like what?”  Maybe if they talked through them, Bill would see they were as prepared as possible.

“What if he brings friends?”

“The devil’s traps will still catch them,” Sarah assured.

“And if they don’t?”

“We both have devil’s trap bullets.  We’ll stop them that way and then exorcise or angel blade them.”

Bill gave her a look this time.  “You make it sound too simple.  What if he can tell you’re pregnant and goes after you?”

Sarah paused.  She hadn’t thought about that and she suspected it was what really scared him right now.  “Then we’ll just have to act quickly,” she said, more sure than she felt.  “You’ll have to work while I distract him.”

Her words didn’t reassure Bill.  His body began tensing – not panic attack levels of tense, but normal anxiety levels.

“Did you bring your meds?” she asked.  “You could probably stand an extra benzo now.”

That got another look.  Bill didn’t like taking medicine off-prescription, but Sarah knew one extra wouldn’t hurt him and might help him relax in preparation for the fight to come.  “Are they in the car?  I’ll go get them,” she volunteered.

They stared at each other until Bill relented.  He dug the car keys out of his pocket and handed her the keycard to get back in the building.

Sarah leaned over and kissed him again.  “I’ll be right back, I promise.  You clean up after us.  Make it so we were never here, oh criminal mastermind.”

 

The walk to the car and back was unremarkable.  No one seemed to pay Sarah any special attention and she kept her head down, mimicking the people around her.  She beamed at the doorman again, acting like she was about to start talking, and he hurried her into the building.

Everything going as planned.

She reached the sixth floor and something was off, though.

Eric’s door was ajar.  She hadn’t left it that way and Bill wouldn’t have, either.

Sarah pulled her pistol from its ankle holster, checking that the hallway was clear.  There was no movement and no sound.

That didn’t bode well.

She crept towards the door, listening hard as she went.

A muffled sound from within the apartment sent a chill down her spine.  It sounded like Bill, hurt.

Sarah steeled her nerves and pushed the door open.  The sight of Bill pressed limply into the wall by the couch greeted her.  His eyes were closed and his dress shirt bloody under the jacket.  Blood trickling from his nose bubbled, telling her he was still breathing.

Thank God.

It wasn’t a sight Sarah ever wanted to see.  She couldn’t look at him, though, because there were two other people in the apartment: Eric and a woman Sarah realized had been in the building lobby when she left.

Stupid.  If Bill had been the one to go, maybe his grace would have tipped him off to the woman’s presence.  It would be her there on the wall, but she’d take his place in an instant.

If Bill with his grace was overpowered, how in the world did Sarah have a hope of saving her husband?

She gripped her pistol tighter and aimed at Eric.  Just as she pulled the trigger, Eric waved his hand and her shot went awry, into the wall not far from Bill’s head.  Sarah sucked in a terrified breath.

“You should have stayed in Jericho,” Eric said, voice a little lower than it usually was.  “You especially.  Bill’s worried about the two of you.”

Bill’s eyes opened and Sarah got the impression that Eric allowed him that movement.  Pupils widening, they looked at each other for just a moment.  Bill blinked and Sarah turned away, taking in the rest of the room.

The carpet was pulled up in front of the door and the painted devil’s trap was scratched and broken.  The sigils on the walls had been spray painted over.

It looked like he’d missed the devil’s trap under the carpet by the bedroom door, though.  There was still hope.

Sarah looked at the woman and noticed her claws and teeth.  Her stomach clenched in terrified recognition.  He had a pet vampire; someone who could walk through devil’s traps and break them.  The monsters were collaborating.

She had to get Bill free to help her.  She couldn’t get both of them by herself.  Sarah’s mind raced.  She could take out the vampire with her angel blade, but that would give away their secret weapons to Eric.

Did she have any choice, though?  She wasn’t even sure Bill would be up to fighting if he was freed; she had no idea what Eric had done to him.

Speaking quickly, Sarah recited, “ _Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica, ergo draco maledicte_ – _”_

“Ah, the part about the dragon,” Eric said as Sarah found her voice silenced.  “I love that bit.”

Well, exorcisms were always a crapshoot when you didn’t have the demon trapped.

“I see you studied up on demons,” Eric said.  “If you speak _any_ Latin, he dies.  Can’t let you finish that pretty exorcism of yours.”

Eric didn’t know about the rest of their training, it seemed.  Then again, how could he?  Sarah looked around the room for some hint of what to do.  If she could get the gun up again and hit the demon, that would work.  So would getting him into the last devil’s trap.

How, though?

Catching Bill’s eyes again, he looked towards the bedroom.  He wanted her to try the devil’s trap.

The vampire sashayed up to Sarah, eying her neck.  Sarah tried very hard not to shrink back.  After her last encounter, the vampire scared her as much as the demon.  “Let me have her,” she asked.  “You have the man to play with.  Let me have a toy, too.”

Eric turned from Bill and placed a hand on the vampire’s shoulder.  “In good time,” he said.  “First we both play.”  He flicked a hand at Bill, who let out a muffled yell.  More blood appeared on his shirt and Sarah winced.  She _had_ to get Bill free before Eric hurt him any more, before he went beyond what the grace could heal.

Sarah said a quick prayer and darted as fast as she could to the bedroom.  She crouched behind the bed, pushing back memories of what she and Bill had done there just an hour ago, and tugged her angel blade from her backpack.

In the main room, Eric laughed.  “You ran the wrong way, human.  You’re trapped now.  That baby is going to die as slowly as his parents.”  His voice came closer as he spoke.

Just let him come close enough…

A shadow in the door brought an angry growl as Eric realized he’d walked into a trap.  A thump on the ground told her his powers were broken and Bill was back on the ground.  Sarah hoped the fall hadn’t hurt him worse.

“Tear up the carpet!” Eric ordered the vampire.  “Find the trap!”

Sarah brought her gun up, steadying herself, and walked right up to Eric.  “Not gonna happen when you have a trap in your head,” she said, and fired the pistol straight into Eric’s forehead.

So much for saving Eric.  But Bill was far more important to Sarah, so she swallowed any guilt.

Eric froze as the devil’s trap bullet lodged in his skull, unable to move or talk.  Sarah ran forward the rest of the way and jammed the angel blade as hard as she could into his stomach and up under his ribs.  It would kill wherever she stabbed him, but she wanted the satisfaction and surety of puncturing his heart.  How _dare_ he betray Jericho?  How _dare_ Eric cheat on April even before the demon?  And how-freaking- _dare_ he touch her husband and threaten their child?

Sarah twisted the blade as light emanated from Eric’s eyes and mouth, the demon burning out of the body.  “You got it wrong,” she hissed.  “ _You_ ran the wrong way.”

She pulled her blade out and Eric dropped to the floor.

From behind him, the vampire leapt and tackled Sarah, making her drop the angel blade.

Flashbacks to their first hunt on their own haunted her, to being attacked and turned.  Sarah pushed the vampire away with all her strength, but she was no match for its supernatural strength.

“ _NO!_ ”  A familiar shadow loomed over the wrestling pair and with a painful cry, Bill slashed at the vampire’s neck.  Even wounded, he had enough strength to behead it.  As soon as she saw him, Sarah let go of the vampire and covered her mouth with one hand.  She was _not_ going to become a vampire again, especially not when it might jeopardize the baby.

The head hit the wall and rolled.  Sarah pushed the body off her and scrambled to Bill’s side.

He was kneeling, clutching at his chest.

“Babe, let me look at you,” Sarah pled.  “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing clever,” Bill said.  “Just slashed at me as if he had a knife.”

Pushing him back a little so she had light, Sarah fumbled at his shirt buttons.  “How deep?”

“I’ll need stitches, I think,” Bill croaked, hissing when she opened his shirt to expose the gashes.  “God, it stings.”

“Stay here.”  Sarah stood and ran to the bathroom, where she found a clean black towel.  She wrapped it around Bill’s chest and back, then buttoned his shirt over it again.  “We’ve got to leave before the police get here.  Surely someone called them.  Button your jacket and I think we can make it to the car.”

“You think I can make it that far?” Bill asked.  “You have more faith in me than I do.”

Sarah held his face.  “You have to make it.  For me.  For the baby.  I’m not leaving you here.”

“You’re bloody, too,” Bill pointed out.

Sarah looked down.  Her white shirt was covered in blood.  She quickly stripped off her dress jacket and the shirt, shoved the shirt in Bill’s suitcase, and put the jacket back on.  It’d look unusual, but it wasn’t indecent.  “There.  Now we both run.  Fire escape time.”

As Sarah helped Bill limp to the stairs, dragging both him and their suitcase of hunting gear, she spotted a fire alarm on the wall.  Feeling a little rebellious – she’d never pulled one before – she set off the alarm and pushed open the stairwell door.

They were soon joined by some other residents, who didn’t give them a second glance.  Thank goodness for people being too caught up in their own lives, Sarah thought.  The stairwell led them to an outside door behind the convenience store.  Down the alley and then a left took them back towards the parking lot.

Sarah kept waiting for someone to call after them, to stop them, but no one did.  Bill was able to pull himself up and walk once they were on the street.  Grateful that they’d draw less attention now, Sarah straightened her jacket and grabbed Bill’s hand, holding tight as they walked.

“Did you hear him?” he asked as they wound their way through the crowd.  “He said ‘his’.  We’re going to have a boy.”

There was a touch of wonder in his voice.  Sarah wasn’t so sure.  “Could he actually tell?” she asked.  “Or was he just using ‘his’ in lieu of knowing?”

Bill squeezed her hand.  “I believe him.”

“You believe a demon?” Sarah snorted, almost hysterical.  “Bill, that’s insane.”

“Just you wait,” said Bill, progressively sounding loopier as he still bled into the towel.  “The doctor will agree.”

“Okay, babe,” Sarah conceded.  “We’ll trust the demon.”

The parking lot was in sight now.  Sarah picked up the pace and dragged Bill with her.  The sight of her SUV was one of the best things she’d seen in a long while.  She dug the keys out of the backpack and clicked the unlock button.

 

Bill collapsed back into the passenger seat of the car.  He was surprised he’d made it this far with as much blood as he lost.  A glance at his shirt under the suit jacket told him he’d started bleeding through the towel, too.

Sarah dumped the backpack and suitcase in the back with their real overnight bags and climbed in the driver’s seat.  She pulled out her phone, opened the navigation app, and typed something in.

“Taking me home or to a hospital?” Bill asked quietly.  He’d take either, at this point.

“The hotel,” Sarah said instead.  “I brought the first aid kit.  Unless you need painkillers?”  She glanced at him.

Painkillers sounded really good right now and he said so.

“Okay,” Sarah said.  “Give me your wallet.  I’ll slice up your shirt and we can make it look like you were attacked in a mugging.  We can come up with a story on the way to the ER.”

Bill’s thinking was slow, but even he realized that they’d be hard-pressed to come up with a convincing story.  He could say he wasn’t pressing charges, but all it would take to blow their story wide open was someone asking just a few questions.  If they were tourists, why were they dressed up?  If he was interviewing, like Sarah’d told the doorman, where was the interview?  The police would call the company and find out he lied.  “No,” he conceded.  “That’s not gonna work.”

Sarah reached out and twirled a gentle hand in his hair.  “Then the hotel.  I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Bill nodded weakly and leaned the seat back so he was lying down.  “Just get us there, babe.”

The ride was over quicker than Bill thought appropriate – Sarah surely sped through the city streets to get there, but Bill was grateful to see the hotel sign as they pulled up to the door.

“Wait here,” Sarah instructed.  “I’ll check us in and then we worry about getting you inside.”

He must look pretty bad, Bill thought, if Sarah was worried about bringing him inside the hotel.  He couldn’t do too much about that, though, so he closed his eyes and waited.

Sarah returned just as he drifted off to sleep.  She squeezed his thigh.  “Wake up, hon.  There’s a side entrance by the elevators that we’re going to use.  You’re gonna have to walk just a little bit more.”

Bill groaned and tried to gather his strength, pulling on the grace in his chest, while Sarah found them a parking spot.

Shouldering both their overnight bags, Sarah also helped Bill out of the car and held his hand on the walk to the door.  He leaned on her in the elevator, hoping vaguely that he wasn’t hurting her.  Their room was a long walk down the hallway and Bill barely made it.  He fell back on the bed immediately.

Sarah set their things down and helped Bill undress, all the way so Sarah could see the entirety of the gashes crisscrossing his chest and stomach.  He felt weak and embarrassed exposed like that, even though the only person seeing him was his wife, who’d certainly seen this much of him before.

She studied him for a moment before nodding and digging in her backpack for the first aid kit.  A hunter’s first aid kit – it had suture kits and needles and holy water-infused creams.  And, most importantly for Bill, it had a bottle of whiskey.  Sarah opened it for him and he greedily drank multiple shots’ worth before splashing it on his chest.

Fuck, that hurt.

Sarah gave him a look and held up a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  “I coulda gotten that,” she said.

Bill grinned shakily at her.  “Habit,” he said.  “Blame the Winchesters.”

She used the rubbing alcohol anyway, paired with a – hopefully – clean washcloth from the bathroom.  The alcohol stung as she daubed his chest, cleaning away sloshed whiskey, oozing blood, and lint from the towel they’d used.

A suture kit was pulled out.  Bill winced when he saw it, knowing how much stitches were going to hurt, but it was this or too many questions at the hospital.  He braced himself while Sarah threaded the bent needle.

“I’m going to space them out,” she said.  “It should get you through the night and home.  The clinic won’t ask as many questions if you want them re-done.”

“No,” he shook his head.  “You’ll do fine.”

Sarah nodded and bit her lip in concentration.  The needle pierced tender skin and Bill sucked in air through clenched teeth.

As promised, Sarah spaced out the stitches, one every inch or so, but each one was still four punctures in his already abused chest.  Bill wouldn’t admit it, but he came close to passing out a few times.  He was pretty sure Sarah knew anyway.

Finally, she was done, wiping him down with even more rubbing alcohol.  “Here,” she said, handing him the whiskey again, “have some more and go to sleep.  I’m going to do the same and we’ll head home when we both wake up sober.”  Sarah closed the room’s blackout curtains as Bill drank.

Taking the bottle from him, Sarah made a face, but drank two long pulls.  She helped Bill into bed before stripping, too, and crawling in with him.

She leaned over him for a moment, staring in his eyes.  “That was too close,” she said.  “I think we need to bring more backup if we ever tackle a demon again.”

“Uh-huh,” Bill slurred as the whiskey hit his system.  “Y’r right.  Too close with demon, too close with vampire.  Why y’re staying home now.”

Sarah gently kissed his forehead.  “We’ll tell people next week.”  A kiss for his lips.  “And then I’ll stay home.”

“’M telling people as soon as we get home,” Bill said.  “No waiting.”

She almost protested, he could tell.  “Okay,” she conceded.  “When we get you safely home.”

Bill smiled and laid a hand on her stomach as she curled up next to him.  “Gotta come up with names,” he said as he drifted off.  “Boy’s names.”

He thought he heard Sarah laugh at him, but he was too far gone to care.

 

Nearly thirteen hours later, around Bill’s usual wake-up time, they finally stirred.  Bill had a roaring headache, but Sarah seemed to have slept off the alcohol she’d drunk.  Good thing, because there was no way Bill was up to driving them home.

Digging into their overnight bags, Sarah showered and they both dressed in casual clothes and stuffed all the bloodied clothes and towels in the bags instead.  Before Bill buttoned his shirt, though, Sarah took a picture of his chest.

“What was that for?” Bill asked.  His phone dinged as it received the picture from hers.

“So you can show the sheriff why you need today off, too.  Maybe even tomorrow.  That grace may make you heal a little quicker, but it doesn’t work that quickly.”

Oh.  That made sense.  He didn’t want to have to take off his shirt to _show_ Sheriff Dawes what’d happened to him, and a picture was a good proxy.

“You can text it to him,” Sarah suggested.

Bill shook his head.  “No, he’ll want this in person.”

She shrugged.  “Okay then.  We’ll get home around the time he goes in, so we can go straight there if you want.

“Good.”  Once Bill got home, he wanted to crawl into bed again and not move for a very long time.

Sarah brushed his hair back from his face and gave him another kiss.  “I’m going to go check out.  You wait here.”

Bill waited, packing up the last of their toiletries.  Damn.  They’d really taken on a demon by themselves – no backup – and won.

And he’d _let_ Sarah do that pregnant.  Was he already a crappy father?  He was racking up the strikes against him: the demon fight, the brief thought that the baby was a mistake…  Maybe he could make up for all that.

A knock on the door told him Sarah was back.  He checked through the peephole, just to be sure, and let her in.

“We’re good to go,” she said.  “Let me get the bags.”  She took the one Bill was trying to shoulder.

“I’m not incapacitated,” he protested.

Sarah gave him a look and he relented, taking his hand off the bag’s strap.  Okay, maybe he was a little incapacitated.

 

The ride to Jericho was leisurely and calm.  Bill slept and Sarah drove the speed limit anyway.  They weren’t in any hurry, since they had to stop at the sheriff’s department before getting home.  There wasn’t even a reason to worry about Sadie: they’d paid Woody Taylor a few bucks to walk and feed her yesterday and today.

Sarah didn’t wake Bill until they were parked outside Town Hall.  “Babe,” she murmured.  “Time to go talk to your boss.”

Bill woke slowly, blinking against the now-bright sunlight.  “Already?”

“You were out of it the whole way,” she explained.  “Want me to come with?”

“Sure,” Bill said.  “You can back me up.”

Sarah led the way inside.  Bill was glad - he was sure pulling open the heavy glass door would tug at his stitches and he didn’t want to start bleeding again.

The office was quiet: Jimmy was out on patrol, dispatch was silent for once, and the sheriff was in his office.  Bill knocked on his door.

Sheriff Dawes looked up and waved them in.  “Back already?” he asked.  “Is that good or bad?”

“A little bit of both, sir.”  Bill eased into a seat and Sarah stood behind him.

“Did you bring Eric back?”

“No,” Sarah answered.  “We killed the demon, but Eric didn’t survive.  _We_ almost didn’t survive, either.”

The sheriff frowned at her.  “Didn’t survive?”

Bill shrugged.  He wasn’t going to tell anyone that Sarah stabbed Eric Green.  “Sometimes the hosts don’t survive exorcism.  We tried.”  Well, Sarah _had_ tried an exorcism first, so it wasn’t really a lie.

The sheriff shook his head and Bill got the impression he didn’t want to know more.  “Are you back to work?”

“I need another day or two,” Bill said.  He pulled up the picture of his chest on his phone and held it out for his boss to see.  “I’m a little beat up right now and could use some recovery time.”

The sheriff frowned again at what he saw.  “The demon did that to you?”

Bill nodded.  “Easily.  Would have done worse if I hadn’t had backup.  There was a vampire there, also.  It definitely took the two of us.”  He hoped Sarah would hear this as the praise he meant it to be.

“Like I said before, son, I don’t know why you’ve appointed yourselves as the ones to fight these things, but apparently someone has to.  Take a day and see how you feel.  I’d like you back as soon as you’re up to it.”

A day.  That was about what Bill had expected to get.  He’d have to make the most of his healing time.  “Yes, sir.  I’ll be back ASAP.”

Bill stood and faced the door.  The sheriff spoke once more and Bill froze, hand halfway to the knob.

“Someone’s got to tell Johnston this.”

Jesus.  Bill did _not_ want to tell Mayor Green he’d killed his youngest son, especially when Jake was still off in the wind somewhere.  But Sheriff Dawes was right.

“I’ll tell him when I come back,” Bill said.  “Not today.  I’m doing good to stay upright right now.”

The sheriff hmphed, obviously not happy with Bill’s procrastination.

“I can come back and tell him,” Sarah offered.  “After I take Bill home and get him settled.  I’m the one who said the exorcism, after all.  I should be the one to break the news.”

Bill looked at his wife, agape.  Sometimes she stunned him with her bravery.  Shamed him, too, truth be told.  He ought to be the braver of the two of them, but she often showed him up.

“That’ll work,” the sheriff said.  “Good luck.”

Bill kept his phone out as they got back in the car and headed home.  He had some texting to do.

His parents already knew about the baby, so he didn’t have to worry about telling them.  Everyone else, however…

He started a group text, like Sarah had shown him:  Jimmy and Margaret and Stanley and Bonnie.

_I can tell you all now: we’re having a baby in November.  I’d have said something earlier but Sarah said no._

 

Both phones started buzzing with texts and Sarah knew what Bill had done.  She thought about fussing – it wasn’t time _yet_ – but decided he’d earned some celebration and Lord knows they both needed some rest from hunting after yesterday.  She didn’t think they’d be doing anything less than normal the rest of the week.

She didn’t look at her phone until Bill was tucked into bed at home, Sadie settling in at his feet.  Sarah idly petted the dog, accepting hand licks, and scrolled through the messages with her free hand.  Most were simple congratulations and a few questions – when was the due date, for example – but Margaret fussed at her, of course, for not telling them sooner.

_What are best friends for if you don’t tell me this stuff?!_

Sarah grinned and tapped off another announcement text, this time to Joanna, who Bill had missed.  She wondered if Bill could be talked into letting her use his hat or badge or something in some cutesy announcement photo to go on Facebook.  That’s what you were supposed to do, right?  A text post just wouldn’t cut it and you _had_ to let extended family and long distance friends know, too.

First, though, Sarah needed to go talk to Johnston Green.  This wasn’t going to be fun.

It only took a few minutes to drive back to Town Hall.  Sarah wished she’d had more time to prepare, but procrastinating would only make it worse.  Taking a seat in the mayor’s secretary’s office, she waited until he had a moment to see her.

Sarah was twiddling her thumbs when Johnston’s door opened and some woman she didn’t recognize left.  Probably head of some committee somewhere.  She felt Johnston’s gaze fall on her.  “Mrs. Koehler?” he said curiously.  “What can I do for you?”

Clutching her purse, Sarah stood and faced the mayor.  “We need to talk, sir.  I don’t have good news.”

Johnston’s eyes narrowed.  “More demons?”

Gulp.  “Something like that, sir.”

He stood aside and let her into his office.  Sarah stood until Johnston took a seat and gestured for her to do the same.

“What’s this bad news?”

“Um.  Well.  The other day, I found Eric.  In Denver.  With the demon still in him.”

She could see Johnston’s knuckles whiten as he gripped his desk.  He said nothing, however.

Forcing herself to look the mayor in the eyes, Sarah let everything spill out at once, using Bill’s story from before.  “Bill and I went there yesterday, to try and exorcise the demon and get Eric back.  But…  Well, it went wrong.  Bill got badly hurt and Eric… well, I tried an exorcism and not everyone survives them.  We did our best, but Eric’s dead and it’s my fault.  I’m the one who did the ritual.”

Johnston flinched when she told him, but schooled his face quickly – his Ranger training must be coming to the fore.  Sarah wished she could take back her words, but the Greens needed to know.  It would be worse thinking Eric was still out there, held captive.  Surely this was better.

Sarah hoped so, at least.

“Because of Bill, we couldn’t get his body out.  He should be in the Denver morgue.”  She pushed a piece of paper across the desk.  “He was living at this address under the name Eric Brown.  Looked like the demon was using his law degree to fund his lifestyle, but I don’t know which firm.”

Sarah looked down at her hands, unsure of what to do next.

“Thank you for telling me.”  Johnston’s voice cracked a bit.  “No parent ever wants to hear this.  You could have easily let us go on without knowing.”

The parent comment got to Sarah.  “Well, sir, Bill and I are expecting our first and with as much as I already worry for our baby, I can only imagine how you worry for your boys, even grown up.  I _can’t_ imagine getting this news, really.  But I know I’d still want to know.”

Johnston stood, Sarah’s cue to leave.  To her surprise, he reached out and shook her hand.  “I’ve heard from the sheriff what you and Bill do for this town.  That there’s more than demons out there and you take care of them before they can prey on us.  And now to hear you’re doing it while expecting a baby?  Jericho owes you two a lot.  I owe you for trying to save Eric for us.  I just wish it’d worked.”

A vision of the demon’s wry smile and Bill against the wall, bleeding, danced across Sarah’s mind.  “Me, too, sir.  I wish the exorcism had saved him.  I wish we’d been able to bring him home with us.”

Letting go of Sarah’s hand, Johnston opened the door.  “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to my wife.  You go take care of your husband.  Hopefully his recovery will be quicker than ours.”

Sarah winced.  “Yes, sir,” she whispered.

Sarah cried on the way home as it hit her finally that they’d destroyed the Green family.  No matter what Eric had done – if he’d cheated, if he’d welcomed the demon – he was still their child.  She couldn’t give that back to them.  And of course, it made her fear losing their own child to something like that.

Sadie “oofed” at her when she stumbled into the bedroom where Bill still slept.  A glance at the clock told her she should think about lunch soon, but right now she needed to be close to Bill.

At least she hadn’t lost him.

Curling up on the bed, Sarah grabbed Bill’s hand and pulled it to her face.  She really wanted to curl up into him, like she did whenever she needed reassurance, but that would just hurt him.  His hand would have to suffice.

She fell asleep clutching his hand, tears still in her eyes.

 

Burning pain woke Bill and he felt that his chest was warm – but not from the grace.

He tried to unbutton his shirt, but Sarah was asleep next to him and not letting go of his right hand.  He sighed and worked at his shirt with his left hand, trying not to hiss when he pressed against the spot just above his belly button where the two gashes crossed in the middle.

He failed.  Sarah stirred, blinking awake.  She sat up quickly when she saw what he was doing.  “Let me help you.”

Bill let his hand fall back to his side, glad for her help.  When his shirt was opened, the skin around the gashes were bright red, a sure sign of infection.

“Shit,” Sarah swore.  “I think you do need the clinic after all.”

“If it’s a normal infection,” Bill said, touching one stitch gingerly.  It was hot to the touch, too.  “You think the demon could do anything from a distance?”

Sarah leaned back, eyes darting to the ceiling, and Bill knew she was thinking, paging through the tons of lore she’d memorized.  “There’s nothing about anything like that that I learned about.  I’ll check Lex’s apps on the iPad, but I really think this is just a regular infection.  I probably should have bandaged you up instead of just using the alcohol.”

Bill sighed.  “Well, I guess we ought to head down there.  Don’t tell April we killed her ex until _after_ she gets me fixed up, though.”

 

“Did this happen at work?” April asked, pulling at the hem of Bill’s pants to see the edges of the gashes.  “Someone get you with a knife?”

“Something like that,” Bill said, glad that Sarah had closed the blinds to the examination room and he was shirtless in private.

“Who did these stitches?”

“That was me,” Sarah said.  “He didn’t want to come here at first.”

“That was dumb,” April said.  “But you did a good job.  Just should have had them closer together.”

“I didn’t have any anesthetic.  I was trying not to hurt him more than I needed to.”

April stood up straight again and looked at Bill.  “I’m going to clean out the wounds, re-do your stitches, and give you some antibiotics.  I’ll use a local, but this covers such a large inflamed area, it might still hurt a bit.  If you’d come in right away, it probably wouldn’t hurt at all.”

Bill grimaced.  He didn’t want to tell April the real reason he didn’t come into the clinic was to avoid her.

“Pants off, Deputy Koehler, if you want me to do this.”  April stepped out of the room, presumably to get supplies.

Bill’s face turned as red as his wounds.

Sarah didn’t laugh, but Bill sensed she wanted to.  Grumbling, he stood just enough to slide his slacks to the floor.  She gathered and folded them, laying the pants atop his shirt on a spare chair.  Sarah looked at him and tugged at his boxers, working them down a little.  Bill almost swatted her hands away, but he realized it would either be his wife undressing him or Dr. Green and he’d much rather it be Sarah.

April came back with a nurse and a rolling cart.  Bill side-eyed it, noting the sharp bent needle and syringes.

“Okay, are you ready for this?”  April picked up the first syringe.  “This part _is_ going to be painful.  It works best if I inject it straight into the wound.  I’ll do that and then clip your wife’s stitches while the local kicks in.”

Bill was _not_ ready.  But he didn’t really have a choice, so he nodded.

April moved in, sliding the needle into the top right of his chest.

Fucking hell, that almost hurt worse than _getting_ the damn gashes in the first place.

Five more times, April stuck him with a needle.  Each time hurt like hell, but by the time she injected the sixth syringe, he could tell the pain was lessening in the rest of his chest and abdomen.  After she clipped and pulled each of Sarah’s stitches out, Bill couldn’t feel anything around the gashes.

They gaped open, red and oozing blood again, though.  Bill saw Sarah look away for a moment.  April wasn’t fazed, however, nor was the nurse.

“A neutral saline wash,” the nurse said, holding up a bottle that looked like it should hold barbecue sauce instead.  She made Bill stand on some towels and carefully rinsed out each gash.  Bill thought it should sting, but he still felt nothing.

Thank God.

The nurse patted him dry with sterile pads, instructed him to lie down, and then April moved in with the needle and thread.

Bill caught Sarah’s eye and she moved closer to hold his hand.  Bill _hated_ stitches, especially this many of them.  He’d put up with almost any medical procedure to not get stitches, but he’d known he needed them, which is why he’d put up with Sarah’s in the first place. 

April was swift and sure, though.  Bill thought she couldn’t have been any faster stitching him up if she’d tried.  The anesthetic worked still, although Bill could feel the tugs at the surrounding skin as the wound was systematically closed up.

Looking up when she was done, she caught Bill’s eye.  “That was over thirty stitches, deputy.  Even surgeries don’t usually get that much.  I didn’t hear anything in the news about anyone getting attacked, so what actually happened to you?”

Bill glanced at Sarah, who shrugged.  She’d told Johnston, so it was his turn to tell April.  Bill sighed.  “Demon stuff.  We’ve been tracking the demons who tried to attack us and trying to take them out one by one.”

“And one of them did this to you?  Got you with a knife?”

“No,” Bill shook his head.  “They have psychic powers.  He did this without touching me.  He could have killed me, but he wanted to play with me first.  Like a cat.”

April didn’t look like she quite believed him.

“It’s true,” Sarah said, looking at the nurse as well.  “I think he was taunting me by hurting Bill.”

“Obviously you got out of there,” April said.

“Yeah, we did.  It was close, but the demon is dead.”  Sarah squeezed Bill’s hand purposefully.

“The thing is, April…” he started unsteadily.  “The demon was the one in Eric.  And Eric didn’t survive the demon riding him.”

“I tried an exorcism, but it’s never a sure thing.”  Sarah’s voice was heavy with sorrow.  “I’m sorry.”

April gaped for a second, but it quickly turned into a frown.  “We weren’t married any more.  The court granted the divorce _in absentia_.”

“Yeah,” Bill said.  He’d heard her sordid story when it traveled around the office gossip trail.  He’d told Sarah about it, too, unable to keep her out of the loop.  He tried not to feel sorry for April, losing the baby in December and her husband – well, losing him last September _and_ just now.  April had proved herself strong over the past seven months.  Still…  “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

April nodded and left.  The nurse looked between Bill, Sarah, and April’s retreating form, and quickly gathered everything back on the rolling cart.  “Keep that clean and washed,” she said quickly.  “Antibiotic ointment too, if you can.”

Bill was left alone with Sarah.  He squeezed his wife’s hand and sat up.  The stitches pulled at skin and muscle, but didn’t hurt.  He suspected he’d be in pain anytime he moved after the local wore off.  Nothing for it, though.  “Help me get dressed, babe?” he asked.

Sarah was gentle buttoning his shirt and pulling up his pants, just as he’d hoped.  She kissed his forehead.  “Sorry I made you come down here, but I think we needed to.”

He grasped at her shoulder and used her to stand up.  “You were right about that.  But now I think I want lunch and another nap.”

“Lunch!” Sarah gasped, looking at her phone.  “Bill, it’s almost dinner time.  I’m so sorry.”

Bill gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.  “It’s okay.  I’m not dying of starvation.”

The young nurse stuck her head back in the room, waving some papers.  “Your discharge,” she said.  “And a couple of prescriptions.”

Looking over the prescription slip, Sarah huffed a laugh.  “A couple.  She’s got you on painkillers, oral antibiotics, what I think is a topical painkiller, and an antibiotic ointment.  Why not steroids while we’re at it?”

Bill didn’t laugh.  He liked the sound of all that.

 

Sarah ran the prescriptions into the pharmacy near Town Hall, then took Bill out to eat while he was still upright.  She didn’t know how long he’d last, but this way she could pick up the prescriptions on the way home and not make a separate trip.

Yesterday had been rough, fighting the demon.  Today might have been rougher, dealing with the fallout.  Thank God she wasn’t making funeral plans for Bill – though she had a sneaking suspicion Gabriel wouldn’t have let that happen.  _Her_ die?  Sure.  But one of his vessels?  He took care of those.  They were important to him.

So maybe she should be thanking God that Bill didn’t have to make funeral plans for _her_ instead.

Bill picked at his food uncharacteristically.  Usually he ate well and with gusto, but today he poked at the salad she’d made him get as a side and barely ate any of the burger he’d actually wanted.  Sarah watched him with concern.

“You need more than that, babe.  I thought you were hungry?” she asked.

“I am.  I just…  I don’t know.  Maybe the last couple days are hitting me now that I’m not in pain.  We killed someone,” he said, voice low.  “Eric’s body didn’t change after we killed the demon.  He was still alive in there. ”

It would be a lie to say Sarah hadn’t had the same thought, especially before she talked to Mayor Green.  “He might still have been dead,” she whispered across the table.  “The demon might have killed him as soon as it knew we were there.”

“Maybe.  Maybe I should have tried harder to break the demon’s hold on me and said an exorcism,” Bill conceded.  Sarah knew this would weigh on him.  Killing vampires and other monsters didn’t bother them, but not being able to save a human life?  That jarred every bone in his body.  It always came back to his job and sense of duty to protect, didn’t it?  That oath he’d sworn and his badge really defined his life – even life outside the law as a hunter.

Standing, Sarah gave the back of his neck a light squeeze and went to pick up a couple of leftover boxes.  Bill would eventually finish that burger, she hoped.

They picked up Bill’s prescriptions just in time for his local anesthetic to wear off.  Bill popped one of the painkillers almost before they’d left the pharmacy.  At home, Sarah carefully applied the painkilling cream and antibiotic ointment while Bill took the oral antibiotic.

“Am I medicated enough now?” he joked while Sarah tucked him back into bed, just the sheet over his chest.  “First my anxiety stuff and now this.”

Sarah tsked.  “I still take more than you do.”  She rattled her bedside pill organizer as proof and crawled in with him.

Sarah suspected he was still hurting because he didn’t roll to face her, just laid there on his back.  “As long as they all work, I guess,” he said, eyes drooping closed.

She reached over and grabbed his hand, giving his palm a kiss - the same palm he’d once channeled grace out of to save her.  She’d stay here just long enough to make sure he was asleep and then the house had some chores that needed to be done.  Bloody laundry needed to soak, for one.  She needed to order Bill a new dress shirt while she was at it – they used to go to New Bern to find the ones he liked, but she’d found them online for about the same price.  It was worth a little extra not to have to drive so far.

Bill’s breathing steadied and deepened; he was asleep again.  Sarah slid carefully out of bed and went to the office.  She looked around it again, still figuring out how to arrange the furniture so that the full-size guest bed fit in here while still leaving them both room for their desks.  It was a puzzle she hadn’t solved yet.

Sighing, she sat at her computer and pulled up the site to order Bill’s shirts.  They’d just have to dip into Lex’s money this month whether Bill liked it or not, she thought as she ordered four shirts.  He could use some extras – hunting was rough on clothing.  She thought he could use a new suit as well, but she wanted him to pick that out in person.

Facebook dinged at her with a message from a friend back home.  Oh yeah, she was going to make a Facebook post, wasn’t she?  Quickly she googled baby announcement ideas for law enforcement.  She had a vague idea already:  she wanted to use Bill’s hat, maybe a cute onesie, and a pacifier.  Or maybe some baby cowboy boots.  The Google search led her to CafePress, where she found plenty of cute themed baby clothes – and a new silly mug for Bill.  Sarah ordered one of almost everything.

Hopefully Bill wouldn’t kill her when he saw next month’s credit card statement.

Computer work done, Sarah snuck back into the bedroom to unpack their overnight bags and take their clothes to the bathroom to soak.  A quick glance told her there was too much blood for the sink, so she dumped them straight in the tub.  Some peroxide, some cold water, and a little bit of Woolite in the soaking water later, Sarah hoped she’d done a good enough job.  Laundry wasn’t her forte.

Back in the bedroom, Bill’s arm was flung across her side of the bed as if he’d been looking for her.  Sarah smiled softly.  Her immediate chores were done, so why not crawl back in bed with her husband?

Bill was home safely and patched up properly.  He wasn’t on that wall anymore, bleeding profusely.  He would soon be back to his usual self: taking on too much and worrying too much about her and the baby.  For now, though, he was quiet and he needed her.

Sarah wasn’t going to say no to that.


	5. Wraiths

The next few months were peaceful.  Bill went back to work as if nothing had happened, Sarah became obviously pregnant, and they were feted with baby showers both in Jericho and back in Sarah’s native Chattanooga.  Their futures as parents loomed large, becoming more real every day.

Then the wraith came.

As usual, Sarah was the one who caught that there was something wrong in one of the Rogue River nursing homes.  Some of the residents saw weird things, but since this was an Alzheimer’s-care facility, no one listened.  No one but hunters, that is.

“Remember the wraith Sam and Dean told us about?” she told Bill.  “The one in the mental institute?  I think this may be one trying the same tactic on dementia patients.”

“You’re staying home this time,” Bill insisted, laying a hand on her belly, large now that she’d reached the third trimester.

Sarah rolled her eyes.  “I said I would, didn’t I?  Now that I’m getting closer?”

That got a look.  “You said you’d quit when you _got_ pregnant and remember how well _that_ went?”  Bill touched his chest and Sarah knew he was thinking of the X-shaped scar that marred his skin.  He was self-conscious about it, but Sarah looked at it and saw proof he’d survived.  She was grateful for Gabriel’s grace helping him heal quickly and without complication.

Sarah sighed and held up a hand in the Boy Scout salute.  “I promise I’ll stay home unless I’m really desperately needed,” she said.  “Is that good enough?”

“That’s the best I’m going to get,” Bill said agreeably.  He gave her a kiss and looked at the computer again, where Sarah had the news article pulled up.  “I’m thinking Mom has a touch of dementia and might need a facility.  I’d better go check it out.”

Good.  He already had a pretense to use.  “Do you need me for that part?  Help sell the family side of things?”

Bill actually considered it for a moment, she could tell, but then he shook his head.  “No, you’re staying out of things.  Even reconnaissance.”

“You should take someone with you,” she insisted.  “You can be led around by the staff while they watch and see what’s really going on.”

Bill revised his plan.  “You think Stanley and I can pass as cousins wanting to find a place for our grandmother?”

Sarah smiled.  “There.  That’s much better.”

 

“You do the talking.  I’ll do the looking.”

Stanley laughed, watching out the truck window.  “Of course I’m talking.  You think _you_ could get some administrative nurse type person to ignore _me_?  No, the only way this works is if I break out the old Richmond charm.”

Bill snorted.  “The old Richmond charm has gotten you how many girlfriends in the last ten – no, fifteen – years?”

“Okay, so it’s a little rusty,” Stanley scoffed.  “But don’t doubt it, man.”

Bill rolled his eyes, grinning.  Even if this _was_ a hunting reconnaissance trip, it was nice to get some time with one of his best friends.  He saw Jimmy nearly every day, but time with Stanley was rarer with the farm.  And when the baby came, it’d be even more rare.  Yeah, he’d better enjoy this while he still could.

Ninety minutes of light banter later, Bill pulled into the care facility.  From the outside, it looked like the kind of place he really _would_ put his grandmother if she needed help: a well-kept lawn, neatly trimmed shrubbery, and a quality paint job.  The electric locks on the doors were the only incongruous part of the facility, but Bill supposed they were necessary.

Too bad people were dying inside before they were supposed to.

Hitching up his pants, Stanley led the way inside.  He was already acting gregariously, perfect to keep the attention off of Bill.  He punched the buzzer that unlocked the doors and Bill noted the reception staff paid them close attention – or paid Stanley close attention, to be precise.

“Hi!” Stanley greeted, with a smile as wide as the sky.  “My cousin and I heard good stuff about you guys.  Our Nana’s eighty and is at a point we can’t let her stay at home anymore.  She needs full-time care.  What can you tell me about yourselves?”

Very good excuse, Bill though, and well executed.  They’d planned it on the way over, but still, Stanley was good at this stuff.  Bill looked around the lobby, which was nicely decorated as far as he could tell.  There were plants and armchairs facing the windows and room enough for wheelchairs to navigate, as one elderly man was doing now.

He turned to the main hallway, beyond the front desk, and into the dining room, which looked like a real dining room.  Actual tables with actual chairs filled the room.  The tables were nice enough they didn’t even need tablecloths.  Maybe he _should_ keep this place in mind for his parents once they got rid of the probable wraith.

Fixed to the walls opposite each corner was a large rounded mirror, so you could see who was coming.  Perfect, Bill thought.  You can see wraiths in mirrors and there were plenty.

Of course, the wraith knew this too and probably managed to avoid the mirrors as much as possible.  He’d have to look closely for people ducking away from them.  The wraith could be a nurse _or_ a patient.

He almost hoped it was a patient.  That’d be easier to find during the day.  If it was a nurse, it was probably on the overnight shift, not at work right now.

To do their work, they’d have to come in at night anyhow.  But how to get past that locked door and all the staff?

A pretty woman about their age stepped from behind the front counter and offered to give them a tour.  Stanley accepted and grabbed Bill’s arm, dragging him along.  As an act, it worked perfectly: Bill came across as more absent-minded and Stanley seemed to be as interested in the woman as the facility.  Come to think of it, _was_ it an act?  Knowing Stanley, he just might score a date out of this.

Bill watched each mirror and each person closely as they walked, half keeping an ear to the conversation.  “What’s your security system like?” he asked during one lull.  “How do you make sure the patients stay safe?”

The woman – Bill thought she’d introduced herself as Janie – stopped and thought about that.  “We don’t usually get questions about that,” she admitted.  “Usually asking just about the door buzzers.”

“Oh, I want to know about those, too.  But I work installing security systems,” Bill lied.  “I just want to make sure our grandmother’s safe.”

“Well, the door buzzers for every outside door can be controlled by the front desk and all but the front doors are locked for good after dinner.  We want everyone safe if they’re sundowning, you know.  The front doors are locked from eight at night to six in the morning.  And we have a state-of-the-art security system by RIA that monitors both the doors and windows.  Silent alarms, so nothing disturbs the patients, of course.”

Damn, Bill thought.  Sarah could probably turn off the security system from their house, but how would they get past the door buzzers after dark?  They couldn’t just sneak in before eight and hide; the front desk made everyone sign in and out.  And with silent alarms, they wouldn’t know they were compromised until it was too late.  Another complication to figure out.

“And how’s the overnight staff?” Stanley asked.  “Nana sometimes wakes up at night and wanders.”

 

Bill and Stanley sat in the truck after their visit, going over what they’d learned.

Bill tapped the steering wheel.  “RIA.  Sarah can turn off their systems, I think,” Bill boasted, proud of his wife.  “They’re good, but she’s better.”

“Man, you guys disappear for an afternoon and come back trained like supervillains.”  Stanley shook his head, laughing.  “Which is really freaking funny, considering it’s you.”

Bill couldn’t disagree.  Ever since Lex and Griff entered his life, he’d been doing things he swore he’d never do.  Not just things that violated his integrity as a deputy, things he’d promised himself.  And yet, by doing so, he was helping people.  Funny how things turned out.

“You didn’t see anything, did you?” Stanley asked.

“No wraiths.  But I do have the layout memorized and we can carry mirrors.  We just have to figure out how to get in there at night.”

“Sarah can’t do that for us?”

Bill frowned.  “I don’t think that on any internet system.  It’ll have to be turned off from here.  Maybe we should shut off _all_ the electricity while we’re at it,” he mused.

Stanley seemed to give that some thought.  “Won’t that just put all the nurses on edge?”

Damn.  He was right.  Bill sighed.  “Well, you got any ideas?”

“Not yet.  Take me to your place and we can discuss this over dinner.”

“You’re so sure you’re invited to dinner?”

Stanley looked hurt.  “Hey, Bonnie’s out with friends tonight.  I have to fend for myself and you have a wife who cooks perfectly good meals and plenty of them.  Help a brother out!”

Laughing, Bill started the truck and pulled out of the parking space.  “Fine.  You call her and tell her you’re coming.  Then call Jimmy and see if he’s free tonight, too.”

 

Stanley inviting himself wasn’t a problem; Sarah purposefully cooked enough for leftovers, so a surprise guest was fine.  The problem was the conundrum Bill and Stanley brought home.

She chewed on her pork chop – not her best meal, but Bill liked it – thinking.  How did they get around the security systems?  If _she_ went, she could get them inside, she was sure, but she couldn’t go.  Bill had shut that idea down before she ever voiced it.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.  “You’re benched.”

‘Benched’ was better than ‘retired’, so Sarah didn’t argue.

“The obvious answer is to go in a window, guys.  If I turn off the security system, they’ll be fair game.”  Sarah illustrated with her fork as she spoke.

Stanley looked almost disappointed.  “You don’t have like, some sort of EMP device that’ll fry the buzzers and open the doors?”

“We’re hunters, not super-spies,” Bill chortled.  “Think low tech.”

Stanley rolled his eyes.  “Oh, because Sarah disabling the security system from an iPad is low tech,” he said sarcastically.

“Low tech with a few ventures to high tech,” Sarah granted.  “It’s mostly for recon, not hunts.”

“Sure.”  Stanley didn’t sound like he believed her.  Knowing Stanley, he probably _did_ think she was hiding some superweapon from him.  He watched too many movies, in Sarah’s fond opinion.

“The other option is one of you disabling the electrical circuits, but that presumes they have a box outside.  Most places don’t, these days, and they’re pretty up-to-date from what you described, honey.”

Bill pushed some mashed potatoes around his plate and Sarah knew he didn’t particularly care for either option.  But since he’d nixed her tagging along, his options were limited.

“Window it is,” Bill said, resigned.  “We’ll just have to figure out where.”

“Lobby should work,” Stanley said.  “Janie said no one mans the front desk outside of visiting hours.”

Sarah raised her eyebrows.  “First name basis, Stanley?  Did you get her number, too?”

Bill choked on his food stifling a laugh and Stanley turned red.

Yup.  He’d gotten her number.

Sarah grinned.  “Well, good job multitasking.”  She leaned back and stretched.  “I suppose I better get to work on the security systems and cameras.  I want plenty of time to insert a video loop into the camera feed.”  Last minute hacks were sometimes sloppy and Sarah took pride in her work, thank you.

Bill pushed his plate away and looked at his watch.  “We’ve still got a few hours left.  Baseball?” he asked Stanley.

“Sure.  Why not?”

Like a good uninvited dinner guest, Stanley helped Bill and Sarah clear the dishes and load the dishwasher.  He offered to help scrub the last of the pots by hand and Sarah was sorely tempted to take  him up on it – the sink was at just an angle that dishwashing cramped her back these days – but Bill shooed him into the living room to find a game.  He knew about the backaches, though, and took the pot from Sarah’s hands, lightly pushing her out of the kitchen.

Sarah grabbed the iPad and joined Stanley in the living room, curling up in an armchair by the TV.  Lex had loaded the tablet with some apps he’d written and she opened one of those now.  First she had to get into RIA’s systems and then she could follow the trail to the nursing home.  That would connect her to the home’s internet and from there, she could access the camera feeds.

It sounded easy, but Sarah was so deep in concentration, biting her tongue, that she never even noticed when Jimmy arrived.

She looked up, finally, to see all three men watching her.  She flushed a little, not caring to be the center of attention.  “So, uh, I got in and can turn the systems on and off.  I’m not going to do it until you’re there, to minimize the chance of someone noticing, so you’ll have to call me and tell me when  you need something done.”

“Text?” Bill asked.

Sarah filled in the rest of his question.  “Yeah, you can text if you need to stay quiet.”

Bill nodded, looking pleased.  “While you were concentrating, babe, we discussed our strategy.  I think the windows are our best bet, but we’ve got to be sure the silent alarms won’t go off.”

Faking offense, she asked, “You don’t trust me?”

Bill gave her a grin but quirked an eyebrow.  _No really,_ the look said.  _I need to know but I’m not going to doubt you in front of the others._

Sarah held Bill’s gaze long enough he would know just what she thought of _that_.  “Like I said, I’m in.  I can toggle the systems off no problem.  RIA will never know you’re there.”

“I’m more concerned about the wraith,” Stanley said, interrupting their silent conversation.

Bill gave Sarah a softer look, showing he trusted her assurances.  “Okay, let’s go gear up.  Lots of silver tonight.”

He and Stanley left for the garage, but Jimmy lingered.  Sarah stood awkwardly and gave him a hug.  “Sorry I missed you coming in.  Hi, Jimmy.”

“Hi,” Jimmy said.  “How’s the little one?”

He always asked and Sarah loved it.  “Just as active as ever.  I swear we’re having a mixed martial artist.”

He grinned.  “That’s good.  Maybe he’ll wear himself out now and sleep for you after he’s born.”

“Hopefully!”  There was that ‘he’ again.  Sarah had purposefully not found out the gender from the doctor, but Bill still took the demon at its word and told everyone they were having a boy.  Sarah let him; there was a fifty percent chance he was right, so no need to burst his bubble.

“I, uh, better get out there,” Jimmy said, motioning towards the garage.  “Just wanted to check in.”

Sarah gave him a genuine smile.  “I always appreciate it, Jimmy, you know I do.  But I think you’re right.  Get on out of here.”

She followed Jimmy and leaned against the garage door jamb so she could watch the men.  Bill was taking his angel blade – they hadn’t yet found anything it couldn’t hurt – and all three men loaded up with silver bullets and knives.

Stanley couldn’t help himself and made a Crocodile Dundee joke when Bill handed him a sizeable silver knife.  Sarah giggled and Bill finally noticed she was standing there.

He left the other two standing by his truck – he’d moved most of their hunting arsenal to the bed locker – and walked up to Sarah.  Lightly running his hands over her belly to rest on her quickly disappearing waist, he leaned down to kiss her.  Sarah kept the kiss chaste, since they had an audience, but she didn’t want Bill to let go of her.

She placed her hands over his, holding him there.  “Be careful,” she said.  “Remember you can’t let it touch you or–”

“–Or we’ll go loco.  I remember, babe.”

“I know you do,” Sarah admitted.  “Just have to remind you for my own peace of mind.”

He kissed her one more time.  “I know.  We’ll be fine.  Don’t worry.  It’s one wraith against three of us.”

Sarah wasn’t so certain.  As she recalled, the Winchesters had told them about a time they almost lost three against one.  She nodded, however.  “Call me when you need me.  I’ll be waiting.”

 

Bill pulled out the Bluetooth earpieces Sarah had gotten him as an early birthday present.  Thankfully, she’d also set them up for him.  He held the button until the female voice said “Connected.”

“When’d you switch to that sort of stuff, Bill?  First a smartphone and now wireless headphones?”  Stanley seemed amused.

“It’s useful, okay?” Bill replied defensively.

Both Stanley and Jimmy laughed at him.  Bill frowned and turned off the headlights as he pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center next to the nursing home.  There were cars in the home’s parking lot – the night nurses – but Bill didn’t want to draw any attention when he parked.  Walking across the small lawn to the lobby was safer.

Bill called Sarah on the earpieces.  “We’re here,” he said simply.  “Can you get us in the lobby?”

“Of course,” she said.  “I’m also watching the real video feed so I can tell you where the nurses are.  Right now, they’re all in the middle nurses’ station.  Once you’re in, I’ll have to create a diversion for them so you can get by.”

“You’re fantastic.  We’re getting out of the car now.”  He gave the other two a thumbs up.  “I’m keeping you on the line for this, unless we need to go silent.”

“If I do my job right, you won’t need to.  Unless Stanley starts yodeling or something.”

Bill tried not to laugh as they snuck across the lawn and behind the shrubbery.

“Security system offline.  Windows are a go,” Sarah said.

Bill nodded at Jimmy, who pulled out a knife and used it to work the window lock.  Bill hoped he could open it, else they stuck with plan b, the electrical box, or plan c, retreating until they found a plan d.

It worked.  Jimmy slid the window up and stepped aside so Bill could be the first in.  He climbed inside, gripping the angel blade.  He wanted to be ready for anything.

All three of them made it through the window.  Stanley closed it behind them, but left it unlocked.  He and Jimmy looked to Bill for their next steps.

“We’re ready to start searching,” Bill whispered.  “Time for that distraction.”

A few seconds later, a faint alarm sounded and they heard voices going away from them.

“Patient at the far end of the building pressed the alarm button,” Sarah said.  “When you’re ready to search that hall, I’ll trigger another one or two.”

Bill motioned further into the building and they split up, holding onto mirrors and silver blades.  The building had four wings and each of them would search one and all do the fourth.  With any luck, the wraith would be a patient and easy to kill.  If they made it through the entire building without any luck, they’d have to confront the nurses.

Let this hunt be easy, he thought.  He was due an easy hunt, he was sure of it.

Bill picked the southeast wing and quietly entered each room, trying not to wake the patients so he could check them in the mirror.  He made his way down the hall, discovering nothing but sleeping humans as he went.

“How’s it going?” Sarah whispered into his ear.

The question made Bill roll his eyes.  As if he could answer her now.  He pulled out his phone, brightness on low, and texted her.  _Boring._

Almost as soon as he sent that, Bill heard a clatter from elsewhere in the building, as if some piece of furniture had been knocked over.

Bill froze, still enough that Sarah whispers were loud in his ear.  “Both of the nurses are headed to the station.  Something happened.  I don’t know what.  I’m about to trip another alarm to see if it works.”

He heard the alarm go and took his chance to head out into the hall.

It was obvious the fake alarm wasn’t going to work.  There were definite sounds of a scuffle down the northeast hall, where Jimmy had gone.

_Shit_ , was Jimmy in trouble?  Bill had to go check, even if he was seen.  He ran back to the central hall, spying the nurses out of the corner of his eye as he turned the corner.  Ignoring their shocked calls, he kept on.  “Babe,” he said breathlessly as he skidded to a stop at the head of Jimmy’s hall, “they’ve spotted me.  Can you cut the phone lines just in case they try to call out?”

“On it.  I can’t do anything about their cell phones though.  If I were there…”

Bill silently cursed as he jogged down the hall, trying to locate Jimmy.  He still wouldn’t have brought his wife, but he wished they had some sort of jammer device he could have brought.  Lex had those, right?  So should Sarah.

Thumps behind him were Stanley catching up to him.  About halfway down the hallway, a door was open and Jimmy was shoved backwards out of it, skidding across the hall.  He looked dazed and left a bloody streak behind him.

“Fuck!”  Bill swore out loud now.  He motioned to Stanley to check on Jimmy and he grabbed onto the wall to help him spin into the room.

There was the wraith.  It appeared to be an elderly female and wore a cotton nightgown, of the sort Bill’s mom wore.  So, a patient.  Maybe that would make it easier to fight, although looking at Jimmy, that wasn’t the case.

The wraith’s spikes were both protruding from its wrists and held up defensively.  Bill drew his angel blade, mirroring the wraith’s positioning and recalling his lessons from Gabriel.  He lunged forward, pulling back just in time to miss a swipe at his head.  Somehow, he needed to get rid of those spikes.  They could regenerate, but if Bill could act quickly enough, it’d give him an opening.

“Stanley!  How is he?” Bill asked, speaking loudly enough to be heard in the halls.  He held up the angel blade in warning as the wraith advanced.

“It got me in the side twice,” Jimmy responded, voice shakier than Bill liked.  The wraith must have touched him.  “Stanley’s getting the nurses.”

Good.  If anyone could talk them out of this, it’d be Stanley.  Bill just had to hold this doorway.  And kill the wraith while he was at it.

The wraith took a step back into the room, as if trying to draw Bill out of the door.  He held his ground for the time being.  Either the wraith would attack him or Stanley would come back and they could team up, right?

Bill was wrong.  The wraith started climbing the room’s wardrobe and Bill realized it was headed for the air vent.  These fuckers were quick and agile and he’d forgotten.  Hell with that, Bill thought as he ran into the room.

 

Sarah sat at home, holding her breath.  She’d barely heard Jimmy’s response to Bill’s question.  She wanted to ask Bill if Jimmy needed an ambulance routed there, but she could see on the security cameras that Bill was standing in a doorway in front of Jimmy.  He must be holding off the wraith.

Each room had a camera.  Desperately, she worked her way into that camera system, flipping through rooms until she found the one Bill was in.  She watched, one hand rubbing the spot where the baby was kicking, as Bill darted forward.  Only then did she see the wraith on the wall.  It was trying to get away!

There wasn’t a damned thing Sarah could do from home, except observe. 

Bill grabbed onto the wraith’s gown and yanked it to the ground.  Sarah held her breath as the wardrobe wobbled precariously, but it didn’t fall on the two of them. 

Bill had his blade at the wraith’s throat and Sarah thought it might be over, but the wraith kicked and caught Bill in the side, knocking him to the ground.

Movement from another camera feed caught her eye and she saw that Stanley had completely failed to hold back the nurses.  Other patients were also awakened by the noises of the fight and were wandering into the halls.  That kept the nurses busy, trying to get everyone back in their room, but Sarah knew they wouldn’t be distracted for long.  Jimmy was still lying in the hallway, hands clutching his side.

The fight with the wraith wasn’t going in Bill’s favor and Sarah’s heart clenched as she watched him try to regain his feet without letting the wraith touch him.  The wraith was quicker and stronger and looked like it was trying to kill now, not get away.

She wanted to cry out, to warn Bill of the wraith’s movements, but she knew Bill was fully aware of what the wraith was doing.  Anything she said would just be a distraction he didn’t need.

Bill had worn long sleeves in preparation for the fight and the wraith grabbed onto one of those now, jerking Bill back to the ground.  It reached for his head, spike coming dangerously close to his neck.

Bill yelled in frustration, the sound loud in Sarah’s ear, and grabbed onto the spike.  It looked like it took some effort, but he broke it off from the wraith’s wrist.  The wraith screamed, recoiling and Sarah winced.

Out in the hall, the nurses made it to the doorway.  Sarah saw hands going to their mouths as they took in the sight of their patient with a spike coming out of one wrist, wrestling with her husband.  Surely they could see the patient was something other than human?

“Get back!” Bill said loudly.  “My friend in the hall is hurt.  Help him.”

Bill still held the angel blade, but the wraith was holding it at bay.  Sarah saw the problem for the wraith, though – it held Bill off with its good arm, leaving it only the spineless one to fight with.

She jumped a bit as the baby suddenly kicked again, painfully, into her ribs this time.  She suspected the baby was responding to her worry and stress, but she rubbed the spot anyway, hoping the movement would soothe it.

The wraith managed to push Bill away – wraith strength still beat out grace strength, it seemed, and touched a finger to his forehead.  Sarah couldn’t stop her gasp.

Bill broke its grip and clambered back against the wall, head in his hands.  Sarah knew how a wraith’s touch worked – they amplified the issues and problems already extant in a victim’s mind.  Bill’s anxiety was probably going wild right now.

She risked speaking.  “Babe, hon, you’ve got to get back up,” she murmured.  “It’s a wraith messing with you.  You’ve got to kill it.”

“Sarah?” Bill asked and her heart stuttered at how lost he sounded.  “Where are you?”

“I’m safe at home.  The baby and I are counting on you to come back to us, so you’ve got to get up and _fight_!”  She almost yelled the last word as the wraith made another advance.

Something in her words must have helped, because Bill stood again, sliding up the wall.  He braced himself, switching to a different grip on the angel blade, one better suited for slashing.  He got one good swipe in before the wraith pinned him again.  Bill’s arms shook with effort, but it was obvious he was losing the wrestling match.

Tears filled Sarah’s eyes.  Was she about to watch Bill die?  Was this it for them?  Would she be a single mother now?  It couldn’t end like this, could it?

A cry of frustration and rage rang in her ears as Bill fought back.  He wasn’t getting anywhere, though.  The wraith’s spike neared the base of his skull.

Sarah closed her eyes, unable to stand seeing the wraith kill her husband.

A new noise got her attention.  Stanley skidded into the room, yelling some mashup of syllables that sounded like he got it from a bad kung-fu movie.

Caught off guard, the wraith took a step back, letting go of Bill. 

Sarah started breathing again as Bill regained his feet.  He staggered back against the wall.  Sarah suspected he was fighting a panic attack, if his ragged breath in her ear was any indication

Stanley kicked at the wraith and made contact, knocking it back into the bed.  There was an audible crack as it hit the hospital bed’s metal footboard.

The wraith was stunned.  Sarah wondered if Stanley had broken its back or if that even mattered to a wraith.  The answer was “no” to at least one of those as the wraith tried to stand back up.

Tried was the operative word, though.  Stanley had used the brief distraction to close in.  Without waiting, he stabbed at the wraith.

Stanley must have amazing aim, because he stabbed at the wraith’s chest and the blade slid right in, not seeming to hit any ribs.  The wraith screamed and Stanley stabbed it again and again, until its chest was a bloody mass.

Sarah had no doubts the wraith was dead.

“Bill,” she dared speak again.  “Bill, control your breathing.  You’re safe now.  The wraith is dead.  Now you need to come home.  Breathe,” she repeated.

Stanley turned to see Bill curled up in the floor.  With a glance up at the room’s camera, he knelt in front of Bill and took out one of his earpieces, sticking it in his own ear.

“You saw all that?” he asked simply.

“Yeah,” Sarah replied.  “He’s having a panic attack, but is Jimmy okay?”  A quick glance at the other camera showed the two nurses looking at Jimmy’s side, but they didn’t appear to be _doing_ anything about it.

“Two stabs from the wraith and whatever it is they inject you with.”

“Dopamine,” she said.  “Your brain produces more of it when they touch you.”

“Yeah, that.”

“That should be over now that the wraith is dead, but I think Bill’s in a genuine panic attack.  I’ll try to talk him through it if you can get Jimmy out of there.”

Stanley shot another look at the camera and Sarah got the feeling he wasn’t looking forward to helping Jimmy walk.  He got up and left the room – Sarah heard him talk to the nurses, but she tuned him out.

“Bill, c’mon, you need to slow your breathing.  In four, out four.  In four, out four.  Do it with me like I was there with you, babe.”  Sarah ran a hand down her face, trying to think how to remotely talk Bill down.  If Jimmy weren’t hurt, he knew what to do.  Stanley hadn’t been around Bill’s panic attacks in years, so he wasn’t used to them anymore.  “You’re safe now, I promise you.  Breathe, please.  Do it for me.  For our baby.”

The mention of the baby seemed to jar something in Bill.  He took a large gulp of air and slowly forced his breathing to even out.  He tried to say something, but apparently Stanley had the earpiece with the microphone, so Sarah couldn’t hear it.

She told him so.  “It’s okay, babe.  I can still see you.  You need to stand up now and walk.  See if the nurses will let you out the front door so you don’t have to use the window again.”

“–know it’s hard to believe, but Ms. uh,” said Stanley, glancing at the wraith’s door label, “Ms. Thomson wasn’t actually a patient.  She was pretending to need your help in order to feed.  Yeah, it’s crazy.  But I need you to believe me.  You see the spikes now, right?  I’m not making this shit up.”

“Doing good, Stanley,” Sarah said.

The nurses peered in the room and what they saw seemed to be convincing enough.  Stanley walked them through a story to tell in the morning.

A minute later, Bill stood shakily.

“Good job, babe,” Sarah encouraged.  She was torn.  Ideally, the guys would deal with getting rid of the wraith’s body, but it looked like the nurses were going to have to help.  “Stanley?  The body.”

“Oh,” came Stanley’s response.  “Yeah.  Okay, ladies, I need one of you to help me.  The other one, can you please patch up my friend instead of just staring at him?  At least enough that we can get him to a hospital?”

Thank God Stanley was unhurt and able to take control of the situation.  Sarah didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Bill had only taken one person for backup.

Bill walked stiffly out of the room and Stanley put a hand on his shoulder.  “Okay, man?  You wait here with Jimmy while I take care of that thing.  Uh, ladies, can you let us out the front?  We’ll be out of your way quicker if you can.”

With a nurse’s help, Stanley wrapped the bloody body up in a sheet and carried it, bridal-style, out of the room.  Sarah suspected the wraith didn’t weigh too much.

Bill stood by while the nurse covered Jimmy’s wounds with gauze.

“Babe, can you help him stand?  You two need to walk out to the truck.  Let Stanley drive.” 

Between Bill and the nurse, they got Jimmy upright and headed out of the nursing home, following Stanley.

Bill spoke again and Sarah guessed it was probably apologies, knowing her husband.

They walked out the front door and Sarah lost sight of them, though she still heard Stanley’s breathing through her headphones.

Quickly, Sarah reset all the security systems.  Once that was done, she leaned back, rubbing her belly again.  Now it was up to Stanley to get them all home.

 

Jimmy’s weight almost brought Bill down.

Well, Jimmy’s weight and the adrenaline rapidly leaving his system.

Bill struggled to keep up with Stanley through the building and across the lawn.  Jimmy was vaguely awake, helping Bill and the nurse a little.  Stanley strode ahead, dumping the wraith’s body in the back of the truck.

Sarah continued to talk to him through the earpiece, her voice soothing and grounding.  Sometimes she spoke to Stanley, asking a question, but for the most part, she reminded Bill to breathe and that everyone was safe now.

He didn’t _feel_ safe yet.  He wouldn’t, not until Jimmy was fixed up and the wraith’s body disposed of.

Once they reached the truck, Stanley helped Jimmy into the passenger seat and handed Bill his earpiece back.  Bill stuck it back in and crawled into the backseat, laying down.  “In the truck now,” he said softly.  “Just me again.”

“Oh God, Bill.  That was too close,” Sarah said.  Bill finally heard the stress in her voice.

Stanley got them back on the road, leaving the bewildered nurse behind.  “Where to?  Hospital here?  The clinic?”

“The clinic,” croaked Jimmy.  “I’m good ‘til then.”

Bill didn’t quite believe him and it looked like Stanley didn’t either, but he drove right past the County Hospital and sped back to Jericho.

“Call Margaret,” Jimmy said.  “She needs to know.”

Bill knew that was his job, since Stanley was driving.  “Babe?” he whispered.  “Gotta call Margaret.  We’re going to the clinic.  Should be there in an hour fifteen.  Gotta hang up on you.”

“Do you want me to call her?”  Sarah asked and Bill almost took her up on it.

“No, this is on me.  Be at the clinic?” he asked.

“Of course.  I love you.  I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Love you too.”

Stanley didn’t even make fun of Bill being sentimental.  They were all on edge, he noted.

Bill took out the earpieces and pulled his phone out.  He dialed Margaret’s cell number and switched it to speakerphone so Jimmy could talk to her.

Margaret didn’t hesitate when she picked up the phone.  “What’s wrong?”

“Jimmy’s alive,” Bill said.  “Here, Jim, say hi.”  He directed the phone towards the front seat.

“Hey honey,” Jimmy said, sounding stronger than he had a minute ago.  He must be rallying for Margaret’s sake.  “Got stabbed.  Going to the clinic now.”

“Not the hospital?”  Margaret sounded worried.

“His choice,” Bill said, pulling the phone back and turning off the speaker.  “Clinic knows about the demons so we can get away with weird injuries.”

“Stabbed?”

“Twice.  In the side.  I don’t know how bad it really is.”

“Damn you, Bill Koehler,” Margaret said, angrily.  “Dragging him out for this shit.  As if I don’t worry enough when he goes to work.”

Bill felt like he deserved her condemnation.  Jimmy was trying to protest, but Bill just said, “I know.  But you know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need to.”

“We got along just fine before you got mixed up in this crazy crap.  Why’d you have to start now?”

“Margaret, I’m sorry,” Bill said tiredly.  “We should be there in an hour fifteen.  Can you be at the clinic to meet us?  Sarah will be there, too.”

“Damn you both,” Margaret repeated.  “Let me get the kids up and take them to my parents and I’ll be there.  But whatever happens is on your head, you hear?”  She hung up on Bill.

“Sorry,” said Jimmy.  “I didn’t tell you she didn’t like me doing this.”

“Shoulda figured,” Bill said, laying his head back on the bench seat.  “But she’s done a good job of hiding it until now.”

“She’s not rude,” Jimmy explained.

“Just blunt.”

Groaning, Jimmy shifted enough to turn to look at Bill.  “She’s just scared.  She doesn’t have Sarah’s ability to watch us.  Or even Sarah’s knowledge.  Without that, how would your wife feel?”

“Sit up straight, man,” Bill said, in lieu of answering.  “Don’t pull at the bandages.”

 

Sarah saw Margaret’s car pull into the clinic ahead of her and her stomach clenched.  What was she going to say to Margaret?  What did she know already?

There was going to be a confrontation.  Sarah could tell as soon as she saw Margaret waiting for her outside the clinic doors.  She and Margaret hadn’t argued much, but she knew her friend was fiercely protective of Jimmy.

“Margaret–”

“Don’t even start, Sarah.  I know all about the hunting crap and the other universe shit.  I was waiting for you to come to me to talk about it, but it looks like I’m going to have to bring it up.”

Sarah’s face flushed.  Of course Jimmy had told Margaret everything.  Why hadn’t she talked to Margaret herself?  What kind of friend was she?

“I’m sorry,” was all Sarah could think of to say.

“You ought to be.  Dragging Jimmy into this when you know how much the kids and I rely on him.  Like he needs to be in any more danger than he is as a deputy.”

Sarah wanted to argue that she depended on Bill, too, as did their unborn child, but she sensed that wouldn’t go over well.  “Jimmy’s the person Bill trusts more than anyone.  He wouldn’t purposefully endanger him.”

“He cares so much about Jimmy, how come Jimmy’s out there while you’re at home?”

“Not fair, Margaret,” Sarah protested.  “I was out there, too, up until we announced I was pregnant.  And I still helped from home.”

“Helped enough to keep Jimmy from getting hurt?”  Margaret wrapped her arms around herself and Sarah saw just how scared she really was.

Carefully, Sarah approached her friend.  Margaret didn’t back off, so Sarah gently wrapped her arms around her.  Margaret stood still for a moment before returning the hug.  She leaned against Sarah’s shoulder and Sarah felt tears soak into her shirt.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t help Jimmy.  I didn’t see it until after it had happened and I didn’t have a way to communicate with him, even if I had.  I was stuck watching without being able to do anything.”  Sarah rubbed Margaret’s back.  “There were nurses there who looked him over and gave him some care before they got in the car.”

“You think it was enough?”

Sarah held Margaret tight.  “I think it must be or they’d have taken him to the hospital there in Rogue River.”

“I wish you didn’t leave me out of this.  Even if I just watch over your shoulder when you do the computer stuff.”

That was fair.  “Next hunt, maybe?  I’m so sorry I kept it from you.  It just seemed like it was too fantastical to ask you to believe.”

Margaret pulled back.  “After last year’s demons?  I think I can be talked into believing just about anything.”

Sarah took Margaret’s hands in her own and squeezed reassuringly.  “Then believe Jimmy’s going to be okay.”

Nodding, Margaret looked over Sarah’s shoulder.  “Here they come.”

Sarah turned and yes, there was Bill’s truck.  She and Margaret hurried over once they parked.

Stanley was the first out.  “Margaret, I need help with Jimmy.  Sarah, you get Bill.”

Watching Stanley and Margaret pull a near-unconscious Jimmy out of the passenger seat, Sarah covered her mouth with a hand.  God, Jimmy looked much worse than he had when Sarah last saw him on camera.

She waited for them to pass before opening the door to the backseat, where Bill was struggling to sit up.  Sarah stood on the siderail, bringing her almost face to face with her husband.  “Bill,” she said, reaching out to him.  “Are you okay?”

“Worn out,” he said.  “Mentally and physically exhausted.  But I gotta go with Jimmy.”

She contemplated arguing with him for only a few seconds.  “Okay, babe.  Let’s get inside then.  How’s your anxiety?”

“Still high.  Thought wraith effects were supposed to quit when they died,” he grumbled, letting her help him out of the truck.

“Maybe that’s another difference between universes,” Sarah suggested.  “Like the demon host thing.”

“Maybe,” Bill conceded.  “It’s a bitch if it is.”

Sarah stopped him in the parking lot.  “It is.  But you made it through the panic.  You did so well and I know it was tough.”  She stood on her toes and kissed him, so grateful to have him in her arms that she felt like she’d burst.

Bill grumbled a bit under his breath.  Sarah knew he hated too much affection in public, but it was almost midnight in a dark parking lot.  This was hardly public, to her mind. 

Still, she wrapped her arm around his waist, using the other one to hold the arm he clung to her shoulders with.  Together, they walked into the clinic.

The sleepy nighttime staff had jumped into action when Jimmy arrived.  Sarah wondered if Bill had called them to give them warning or if they were just that efficient: Jimmy was already in a room, being given anesthetic so they could clean out the wounds.

Sarah didn’t want to think how dirty a wraith’s spike might or might not be. 

They stood outside the window to the room with Stanley, watching Jimmy getting treatment.  Jimmy was barely awake, it seemed, but he had enough presence of mind to hold Margaret’s hand.

“The danger is infection after the skin heals,” Sarah said quietly, recalling the various first aid lessons she’d had.  “Because it goes deep, not wide, and we can’t keep it clean like the gashes you got, Bill.”

Bill nodded.  Sarah knew he knew all that, too, so she’d spoken more to fill the silence than anything.

“He’ll get through this.  Jimmy’s a strong bastard,” Bill said, leaning against her.

“He gets through this and I’m never letting either of you live down getting beat by an old lady.”  Stanley brought some levity back to the group, making Bill crack a smile for the first time since the hunt began.

In a few minutes, Jimmy rolled onto his back, stitches in his side.  Margaret talked to the nurses for a little bit and looked up, catching Sarah’s eye.  Margaret wasn’t crying, so maybe it was good news.

She gestured for the other three to join her after the nurses left.  “They think he’ll be okay.  They’re gonna take X-rays to be sure, but they think one stab missed anything vital and the other nicked a kidney.”

“Keeping me here,” Jimmy added weakly.

“What do they do if it got his kidney?” Stanley asked.

“If it’s minor, nothing.  If it’s large, send him back to Rogue River by ambulance for surgery.”

Sarah winced.  She knew it could have been worse, but Jimmy’s size probably helped him here.  The man was strong and fit enough to do his job, but it’d be a lie to say he didn’t carry any extra weight.  Just like she did, so Sarah didn’t mean it critically.  It might have been the thing that saved his life tonight.

Bill left Sarah’s grip, walked up to the bed, and placed a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder.  “You got this.  You can take anything they throw at you.”

“Someone’s gotta keep you straight,” Jimmy whispered.

Noting that Jimmy seemed about to drift off, Sarah asked, “Do we need to leave?”  Did Margaret need a friend, in other words.

Margaret stared at Jimmy, looking for the answer in his face.  “I think we’ll be okay here without you,” she said finally.

There was just enough sharpness left in her voice that Sarah knew Margaret was still mad, but worrying over Jimmy took point.

Hopefully they’d be able to salvage their friendship.  They’d had a good start earlier, but Sarah expected Margaret would want a lot more explanation out of her.

She reached out and touched Margaret’s arm.  “Text us all the news.  Let us know what we need to do for you.”

Stanley helped Sarah get Bill out to her SUV.  Stanley took the truck, swearing to have it back before the next night.

Bill just nodded, telling Sarah just how tired he really was.  And he’d have to get up in just a few hours to go to work.  Without backup, because there was no way Jimmy would be able to work the next few days, especially if he needed surgery.

Sarah prayed it would be an easy day as she tucked her husband into bed.

 

Four-thirty rolled around and Bill did not want to wake up.  He’d had four hours of sleep, but he felt like he’d had none. 

Duty called, though.

Blinking back against the light, he checked his phone for messages from Margaret.

_X-rays not good.  Going to Rogue River._

_In surgery._

_He’s out.  Not awake yet but they say it went well._

_That was too close.  You’re on your own, Bill.  Destroy your family if you want, but not ours._

Bill flopped onto his back, wondering what Margaret had said to Sarah.  Would she be more or less blunt with a girl friend?

Sarah roused enough to reach an arm across his bare chest.  She snuggled her face into his shoulder and any motivation Bill had was immediately gone.  He reached down to lay a hand on her belly, just like he did every morning, and whispered, “Be good today, little guy.  Take it easy on your mom.  She may have just lost a friend.”

“Margaret still mad?” mumbled Sarah, muffled by his body.  Bill hadn’t realized she was awake enough to hear him talk to the baby.

“Jimmy’s alive, but he needed surgery.  Sounded like Margaret is definitely still mad.”

Sarah buried her face a little deeper into the crook of Bill’s neck, about as far as she could crawl on top of him these days without the baby getting in the way.  He wrapped both arms around her, rubbing her back.

“You gotta get up,” she said unhappily.  “I need to move so you can do that.”  She made no efforts to follow through on that statement.

Bill was sorely tempted to call the Sheriff and tell him both he and Jimmy would be out, recovering, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to dump double shifts on his coworkers.  “Babe, you’ve got to actually move.”  He gently pushed to roll her off him.

Sitting took a great effort, but he made it to the shower, using cold water to wake himself up.  By the time he emerged from the bedroom in his uniform, Sarah was cooking breakfast.

It wasn’t much, just oatmeal and some fresh fruit, but it was warm and nourishing and hearty for a hard day to come.

“I’ve got the day off,” Sarah said.  “When you get home, do you want to go see Jimmy?”

“Yeah.”  Bill frowned.  “If Margaret will let us in.”  He showed her the text messages he’d gotten.

“That’s about what I got, just a bit more verbose and vulgar.”

Bill’s frown deepened.  He didn’t like the sound of that.

“She’s scared, babe.  She’s going to lash out.  I probably would do the same.  I’ll talk to her tonight and maybe we can get this worked through.”

“I hope so.”  One last spoonful of oatmeal, fresh blueberries stirred in, and Bill almost asked for seconds.  He recognized that he was procrastinating and fought back against that.

Grab his hat, kiss Sarah goodbye, and walk into the garage.  Bill had his routine.

Today it was interrupted.  His truck wasn’t there.

Sarah touched him on the shoulder, holding out a set of keys.  “Stanley’s truck is on the street.  Drive it and we can swap vehicles on the way to Rogue River.”

Thank goodness for Sarah.  His brain was still too tired.  It’d stuttered to a halt when he saw the empty spot where his truck should be.  He grabbed Stanley’s keys and headed into work.

 

The day was calm, as far as law enforcement was concerned.  Two domestics, three burglary reports, and two speeding tickets.  Bill spent most of his time parked somewhere quiet, filling out the paperwork that would let him leave earlier.

He couldn’t have asked for a better day to be without backup.  Nothing he needed a second person on and just enough action to keep from falling asleep on the job.

Staggering into the station at the end of his shift, Bill was immediately hailed by the sheriff.  It was Saturday, so he hadn’t expected to see him, but he didn’t question it.  Bill collapsed in an office chair.

“You look like death warmed over,” the sheriff said bluntly.

Bill had enough energy to laugh.  “Feel like it too, sir.  But I’m better than Jimmy.”

“Yes, that’s what I was going to ask about.”  Sheriff Dawes leaned back in his chair and twiddled this thumbs.  “Tell me what happened.”

Bill did, starting with Sarah discovering the wraith’s work and ending with the news he’d gotten from Margaret this morning.  He’d decided months ago that he’d tell the sheriff whatever he asked.  Dawes wasn’t usually this curious, but this was the first time someone other than Bill had gotten seriously hurt.  It affected work, so he had an interest in it.  He was Margaret’s uncle, so he had a personal interest, too.

“I’ve heard from Margaret.  They’re keeping him overnight so he won’t be in tomorrow either.  I know it’s usually your off day, but I’ll need you in.  You understand.”

Bill nodded wearily.  If he went to bed early tonight, it should help.

“Go home, Koehler.  Get some rest and come back ready to work.”

Nodding again, Bill stood.  “Sarah and I are going to see Jimmy,” he said, pausing in the doorway.  “Want me to tell either of them anything?”

“I already talked to my niece.  I think everything’s been said.”

Somehow that didn’t sound too encouraging.  “Yes, sir.”

Bill climbed in Stanley’s truck and headed for home, a change of clothes, and Sarah’s embrace.

 

Fillmore County Hospital was busy.  Sarah – who’d driven while Bill napped – had trouble finding a parking spot.  Bill woke when she shook him and they walked in, hand in hand. 

Sarah asked the reception desk for directions and got a room on the third floor.  As they rode the elevator, Sarah tried to think of what she’d want to hear if Bill had gotten hurt when he was out with Jimmy.  Fishing trip, maybe.  A better comparison would be Bill and Jimmy trying to catch an alligator and Bill getting bit while Margaret stood by and took pictures.

The right words just weren’t coming to her.  She’d have to hope they showed up when she saw Margaret.

The baby kicked and Sarah reflexively put Bill’s hand on her stomach so he could feel it.  The baby seemed to perk him up a little: he stood up straighter and a smile almost reached his face.  Maybe this would help him face Jimmy.  Help him remember why they hunted in the first place.

Seeing Bill gain some strength encouraged Sarah as well.  Maybe this wouldn’t go badly.

Margaret stood as soon as they knocked on Jimmy’s open door.  “You two,” she said tensely.

“Hey guys,” said Jimmy.  He looked half awake, but sounded almost normal again.  He also wasn’t nearly as stand-offish as his wife was.  “Sit down, Sarah.  Sorry we don’t have a third chair, Bill.”

Bill stood by Jimmy’s side, opposite Margaret.  “I’m so sorry, Jimmy.  You shouldn’t have gotten hurt.  We shouldn’t have split up.”

Jimmy shrugged one shoulder.  “We all agreed to the plan.”

Sure that Bill and Jimmy were going to get along still, Sarah walked over to Margaret and lightly touched her shoulder.  Margaret glared at her and Sarah gestured to the two chairs by the window.  She had an idea.

Margaret took a seat, but her body language was still defensive.  Sarah started with another apology.

“I’m sorry.  For everything.  I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stop Jimmy getting hurt.  I’m sorry Jimmy’s out there because I can’t be.  Mostly, though, I’m sorry I never talked to you about any of this.”

Margaret met her eyes.  “You should have.”

“I know.”  Sarah hung her head.  “I’m guilty of doing what Bill does to me.  I hate it when he does it but I’m just as guilty.  I was trying to protect you when you’re an adult and can face this stuff yourself.  You have the right to know about it, particularly because Jimmy’s involved, but also because we’ve been best friends.  I should have come to you the second we got back from that other universe.”

Silence met her and Margaret’s face was unreadable.

“I want to tell you what happened.  I want to involve you as much as you want to be involved.  Bill and I started because we wanted to keep Jericho safe, but now it’s because we want the world to be a better one for our baby.  I always got the impression Jimmy did this for you and the kids, too.”

“Yeah, well.”  Margaret looked out the window and Sarah thought she saw a glimmer of tears.  “He’s always had a heart bigger than his brain.”

“Which is exactly why you love him.  Why everyone who knows him loves him.”  Sarah watched Margaret closely.  “Bill and I love you guys like family.  Sometimes I swear Bill’s as close to Jimmy as he is to me, if not closer.  But they’ve both accepted that they need to face danger to keep us safe.  Somehow, you and I have to either accept that or come up with a compromise.”

“Like they don’t face enough already?”  Margaret shook her head.  “I know I was one of the people telling you how safe Jericho is and how safe the deputies are before you got married, but that doesn’t mean I don’t worry.  That I’m not afraid every time he walks out the door.  And now you two have this fantastical story and you’re dragging him out at all hours of the night, pulling him away from me and the kids, and putting him in even _worse_ danger!  He’s _never_ been in the hospital before.”

Sarah took a moment to sit quietly.  She wasn’t sure if she should say anything or if Margaret would continue on her own.  The guys continued talking, oblivious – or acting so.

The silence became awkward and Sarah definitely saw tears welling.  Margaret was usually so strong that it was an odd sight.

“Margaret, do you want me to tell you everything that happened?  Not just last night; everything since last year.  Would that help?”

She nodded.

So Sarah did, starting with the wrecked Chevy on the side of the road.  She was deep in the story and didn’t realize Bill and Jimmy were listening too until Bill made a noise when she shared just what she thought of the men in the other universe.  A glance at her husband told her she’d been a little too complimentary of their looks.

“Do you want to pick up from here?” she asked.  “I was just about to start on the hand-to-hand training.”  Sarah grinned, knowing Bill would remember the times she was able to take him down.

He gave her a slightly irritated look and shook his head the tiniest bit.

So Sarah continued.  Hunters, Men of Letters, law enforcement who knew about the supernatural.  Angels and archangels and the King of Hell.  Combat and weapons training.  Hours and hours of research and memorizing lore.  Lex’s computer lessons.  The more-than-brotherly bond between Bill and Lex and Griff and how weird that was for her.

Everything detail she could think of, Sarah let spill out.  Once she’d started, it became cathartic.  Sarah didn’t realize how careful she’d been to keep the two halves of her life separated – the hunter and the soon-to-be mother, housewife, and librarian.  She couldn’t drop the façade for just anybody, but she did for Margaret.  From the looks she was getting, Bill hadn’t been this open with Jimmy either.

Finally, Sarah’s story brought them back home, where they’d had to make a decision who to tell.  Jimmy and Stanley were definites.  The Sheriff and the other deputies were practical choices.  After that, though, it was just easier to keep it amongst themselves.  Jericho at large didn’t need to know about anything more than the demons; why rock the boat any more than they already had?  Sarah even included the discussions – well, negotiations – she’d had with Bill over having kids and her own involvement.

“If he didn’t want _me_ , who’d been through the same training he had, to hunt, you can imagine how he felt about involving you,” Sarah said.  “It may be a little chauvinistic of them” – and here Bill and Jimmy looked affronted – “but they mean well.  We meant well.  It wasn’t the right thing to do, though, and I’m sorry.”

Margaret sat in silence again, but this time it seemed she was digesting the information.  Sarah bit her lip and looked hopefully at Bill and Jimmy.  Jimmy gave her a surreptitious thumbs up.

“Okay,” Margaret said after a few minutes.  “So I understand why you didn’t tell me.  And you, at least, know you should have.  But can I trust you to still have Jimmy’s back, Bill?  Even if he backs out of hunting?”

Bill patted Jimmy’s shoulder.  “Margaret, he’s my partner.  After Sarah, he’s the most important person in my life.”

Jimmy grinned.  “Aw, you care,” he said sappily.  “You really care.”

Even Margaret laughed at that.

“I’m sorry, too,” Bill said.  “The three of us decided to split up, but I see that wasn’t the brightest option.  We’ve been back a year, but we’re still learning, too.”

It looked like Margaret had been waiting for Bill’s apology too; only after hearing it did she relax back into the chair.  “All right.  I give.  I can’t stay mad at you two.  But you better believe Jimmy and I are having _discussions_ about him continuing to hunt.”

Sarah reached out and Margaret took her hand.  She squeezed it, smiling.  “I’d expect nothing less.  And if you want, I’ll teach you whatever you want to learn.  You just tell me.”

“We should go,” Bill said, and she realized just how tired he looked.  It was starting to get dark outside, which meant Sarah needed to get some food in her husband and then put him to bed.

They left the hospital, found a restaurant, and headed home.  Bill drove this time, grumbling about Sarah adjusting his seat, even though she’d only had to move it a few clicks.

His face was still sour when they parked in the garage.  They took the lazy route and let Sadie have a run in the backyard instead of a walk.  Bill went back to the garage and worked on the laundry, running a steamer over his uniforms.

Sarah stared in the fridge, ostensibly to plan the grocery list, but really trying to figure out why Bill was grumpy when Jimmy was on the mend and Margaret was no longer mad.

Wait.

He’d _really_ been bothered by her comments about the Winchesters and the vessel crew, hadn’t he?  Oh, that was silly.  He should know she’d take him over them any day.

Maybe she needed to show him that.

When Bill came back inside, she was waiting with a kiss.  “Babe.  Do you really think I like _anyone_ better than you?  Being pretty doesn’t mean ‘more attractive than you’.”  She gave him a light push towards the bedroom. 

They were going to bed, but Bill wouldn’t get any sleep just yet.


	6. Sheriff

Jimmy recovered with few complications and was back on patrol in two weeks.  Bill was thrilled to have his partner back, but even more thrilled to get his off days again.  They quickly fell back into their old routine.

Margaret invited Sarah over at nights, once the kids were in bed.  She learned the lore and a little bit of hacking, enough that Sarah knew she’d have help from here on out.  Bill knew it was nice for Sarah to have a friend to fully confide in again.  He was sorry she’d ever gone without.

Early November brought Jericho another ghost – this one a poltergeist.  Perhaps ironically, it was tormenting the new owners of the warehouse that had once housed all the nuclear gear.  Johnston Green had confiscated everything in that warehouse, giving the sheriff’s department most of the gear, to the evident glee of most of the deputies.  The new owner was the local hardware store owner, who wanted a place to put backstock, but the poltergeist destroyed whatever he put in the building.

Bill had to cast out a net this time and found a genuine psychic named Missouri who lived in Lawrence.  With her help, the poltergeist was sent on to the next plane or wherever the spirit was bound for.  Before she left, Missouri promised to get Bill in contact with other hunters and promised Sarah the baby was as healthy as could be.  After that news, Sarah almost didn’t want Missouri to leave; the reassurance was a huge relief.

 

A few days before Thanksgiving, exactly one year since they returned from the other universe, Sarah went into labor.  Bill was terrified every second Sarah was in pain and she wasn’t much better off; it wasn’t like either of them had experience with births.  Determined to have a home birth anyway, Sarah had arranged for a midwife from Hays to help her out.  She soothed Bill almost as much as she assisted Sarah.

Fourteen long, hard hours after she told Bill the contractions were real this time, Sarah gave birth to a baby boy, just as everyone and everything had predicted.  She collapsed back against Bill, still crying as the midwife handed her the baby.

Sarah clutched the bloody newborn to her chest and Bill stared at them both, unsure of his own emotions.  Was this feeling in his chest the grace, a sign he was about to cry too, or something new entirely?  He could barely breathe.

Ten minutes later the messy stuff was finished and the midwife handed Bill a small, squalling, swaddled bundle before she helped Sarah into bed. 

Bill stared at the baby’s squished red face.  His son.  _Their_ son.  He was terrified and awed and couldn’t believe the baby was actually _here_.  Once he saw Sarah was propped up on some pillows and settled in, he gingerly handed the baby to her before crawling on the bed himself.  He was completely oblivious to anyone in the room besides his wife and son.

Sarah was still exhausted, weepy, and emotional from the birth.  “Nathaniel,” she said haltingly, stroking the baby’s head.  “Nathan.”  Bill kissed her hair and she leaned into him, bringing the baby close enough for him to touch, too.

Now that he was cleaned up, baby Nathan was the most wonderful thing Bill had ever seen – and he’d seen some pretty fantastic things done by Gabriel and Castiel.  None of their angelic antics held a candle to the sight of Sarah feeding their son and Bill suspected they never would.  Bill laid a hand on Nathan’s head, just to reassure himself the baby was real.

Sarah smiled, turning her face into Bill’s chest.  “We have a boy, babe,” she said wearily.  “We’re parents now.”

Those last three words sent a chill down Bill’s spine.  He had so much more at risk now.  Two people counting on him to come home every night, to take care of them, to be there when they needed him.

He hoped he was up to it.

 

The holidays were quiet on the supernatural front, leaving Bill and Sarah time to get used to life with an infant.  After the second week, Nathan often woke them with screams and cries.  Bill split the night with Sarah: after two, it was Bill’s job to get up with Nathan.

Once his needs were taken care of and he was given attention, Nathan was pretty good about falling asleep again.  There were many nights Bill fell asleep in his recliner with Nathan lying atop his chest, waking only when Sarah came to tell him the alarm was going off.  He’d hand off the sleeping baby and reluctantly get ready to leave them.

During the first months of the new year, Sarah found a couple hunts, a ghoul and another run-of-the-mill ghost.  Bill, Jimmy, and Stanley took care of both with ease.  The real challenge Bill faced was Sarah going back to work.

“It’s just three days a week for now,” Sarah pointed out.  “And as much as I’d like to keep him myself all the time, daycare will probably do him some good.  Get him used to other people and other children.”

Bill held Nathan tightly enough that the infant fussed.  “Yeah, and all their germs.”

Sarah gave him a patronizing smile and Bill glared.  “Babe, exposure is not necessarily a bad thing.  He’s had all his vaccinations and a cold won’t kill him.”

“You _want_ Nathan to get sick?”  Bill was incredulous.

Laughing, Sarah turned back to fixing dinner.  “Hardly.  But it’s not the end of the world if it happens.  All the baby books suggest socialization, either in playgroups or daycares.  We don’t know anyone else with a baby, so daycare is our best choice.  Plus we could probably use my income again.” 

“Yeah, what we aren’t spending on daycare,” Bill muttered.

Sarah put down the spoon and reached up to kiss Bill.  “It’ll be okay, babe.  Try to relax and stop fretting.  If you get worked up, so will Nathan.”  Another kiss followed by one on Nathan’s head.

Bill hated it when Sarah was right.

 

“Koehler, I need to talk to you,” Sheriff Dawes said as soon as Bill walked in from patrol one May afternoon.

Bill shared a look with Jimmy, who shrugged slightly and veered off to his own desk.

Sitting down in front of the sheriff’s desk, Bill asked, “Sir?”

Dawes leaned forward, propping his elbows on the desk.  “This stays in this office, Bill, or between you and your wife.”

Well, now Bill was really worried.

“I know the rumors and they’re true.  I’m retiring in a couple months.  I want you to consider running as my replacement.”

Bill was sure he misheard.  “Me, sir?”

“Yes, you.  You’ve stepped up in the past year, since the unpleasantness with the demons.  You’ve personally taught the rest of the department how to stay safe now that we know… things… are out there.  You’ve gone above and beyond your duty and it’s been noticed.  Not just by me.”

Bill leaned back in his seat.  “Sir, I’ve got an infant at home.  Do I really have the time to do the job?”

“My kids were almost that small,” Sheriff Dawes countered.  “And as sheriff, you can more properly train your fellow deputies.  Keep the town safe that way.  Make it so it’s not all on you and your wife.”

“Well,” Bill admitted, “Jimmy helps a lot lately and so does Stanley Richmond.  It’s not just the two of us.”

“Make it so it’s not all on the four of you, then.  Like you said, you have a baby now.  Sheriff gives you regular hours, more pay, and a little more safety – or as much safety as you give yourself.  Things to think about.”  Dawes waved him out.  “Talk to your wife about it and let me know.  If you run, I’ll endorse you.”

Bill’s head spun as he powered through his paperwork and filing on autopilot.  Him, sheriff?  He’d never wanted that.  He was happy being a deputy.  But if Dawes retired, who would be the new sheriff?  Some outsider?  Riley?  Salem?  Could he work for someone else?

“Of course you should run,” said Sarah.  “Train the whole department as hunters and not just your clean-up crew.  The whole town _should_ know you were instrumental in the demon fight, if they paid any attention.  You’d probably be a shoo-in.”  She spoke softly, trying not to wake Nathan, who was wiped out in her lap as she rocked him.  She’d just fed him, so he was especially sleepy, Bill hoped.

Bill leaned in the nursery doorway, watching the two people he loved the most and thinking.  “I don’t know,” Bill said.  “Right now I’m home by three and can pick him up from daycare early.  If I become sheriff, that’s an eight to five job.”

“I work an eight to five job,” Sarah pointed out.  “Well, eight-thirty to five.”

“So it’s longer for him at daycare and if there’s a hunt, I have less time to prepare.”

“You’d also have more people who know what they’re doing,” Sarah said calmly.  “More backup.”

Bill smiled fondly.  “What happened to the days when you were the only backup good enough for me?”

“Stanley and Jimmy have more practice now.  And we can’t constantly dump Nathan on your parents so we can hunt.  You were right about one of us needing to stay home while he’s this little.”  Sarah looked up at Bill.  “Can you help me get him into the crib without waking him?”

Bill crouched in front of the rocking chair and slid his arms between Nathan and Sarah’s lap.  He froze when the four month old made a noise like he was waking up.  Sarah caught his eye, sitting equally still.

Nathan rolled to face Sarah and he quieted again.  Bill let out the breath he’d been holding and picked him the rest of the way up, laying him gently in the crib.  He and Sarah snuck out of the nursery, leaving the door ajar behind them.

Sarah put her hands on Bill’s back and steered him towards the kitchen.  He sat at the table while Sarah pulled out dishes to start supper.

“I really think you should do it,” she said, leaving the “if you want to” unspoken but implied.  “When is Sheriff Dawes officially announcing his retirement?”

“I got the feeling he was waiting to hear what I said.”  When had Bill’s opinion become so important?  He’d never asked for any of this – not the vessel thing, not extradimensional twins, not hunting, not any of it.  All he’d ever wanted was to patrol with Jimmy and come home to Sarah and their family.

Sarah set down the wrapped chicken breasts she’d just pulled from the fridge and stood in front of Bill.  Slowly, she bent to cup his face and gave him a soft kiss.  “Babe, you know I’ll support you whatever you choose.  But I _do_ think Sheriff Dawes was wise to ask you.”

Bill closed his eyes as her fingers lingered on his skin.  “You sure you want the upgrade to sheriff’s wife?  People will _really_ think you know what’s going on then,” he joked, reminding Sarah of one of her biggest complaints about being a deputy’s wife.

Crumpling up the plastic wrapping from the chicken, Sarah frowned a little bit.  “You know that’s not a consideration.  Only things that’ll affect Nathan and me would be the new pay and the new hours.  The rest falls on your shoulders.  _That’s_ what you’ve got to think about.”

“Jeez, talk me into it, why don’t you?”

Sarah put her hands on her hips.  “Hon.  This is your decision to make.  You know what _I_ think.  What matters is what _you_ think.”

Bill leaned back in his chair, _trying_ to think about it.  “But I have to campaign and I’m no good with people.”

“You know people who are good with people,” she pointed out.  “Stanley, for one.  Jimmy’s immensely personable.  Margaret could talk the pants off anyone and you might even get the Green family behind you.”

Hardly, Bill thought.  “Even after Eric?”

“Even after Eric.  They know what we do and what you could bring to this town.  Gail asks me about what we’ve hunted every time I see her around town.”

Huh.  He hadn’t known that.  “What do you tell her?”

“The truth, usually.  She knows what’s out there, so there’s no sense hiding it.”  Sarah gave Bill another look.  “And you’re deflecting again.  You’ve got people to help you campaign.  And who knows?  You may not have an opponent.  Sheriff Dawes didn’t always have one.”

 

It was perhaps inevitable, but Bill told the sheriff “yes.”

Bill doubted his reception as a candidate, but the only ones who seemed put out by it were Riley and Salem.  Connor told Bill in confidence that Salem had planned to run, but scrapped the idea because he didn’t think he could beat Bill after last year’s demon battle.

That made Bill smile a bit more than it should have.

No one else entered the race.

Sarah insisted they make up some signs anyway, just so people knew he was the candidate.  She even made him a website.  Trying to come up with some sort of platform he could put on there was taxing, even with Sarah tossing him ideas.  He ended up calling Jimmy for inspiration, but his partner was just as stumped.  Finally, Margaret took the phone and spouted off some issues from her uncles’ races.

“You really should have just asked _him_ ,” she said before hanging up.

Sarah typed up the ideas, published the webpage, and did something so that it showed up as a Facebook ad to locals but without having to pay Facebook.  “Thank Lex for that,” she said.

Bill trusted her on the computer stuff.  Stanley, who had a surprisingly good eye, made up a sign for him – the green and gold and khaki of their uniforms.  Bill ordered some and was surprised at the number of people who requested one from the website.

“What have I gotten into?” he asked Nathan as he rocked him to sleep for a nap one afternoon before Sarah got home.  “We’re gonna lose this daddy-son time.  Can you forgive me?”

Nathan yawned and stretched his still-tiny arms out.  His head rolled to the side as he fell asleep in Bill’s lap.

Bill took that as a yes.

The August special election went by with little fanfare.  There was low turnout, but more people voted than Bill expected.

He was the only candidate and yet he still spent the day worrying about something going wrong – worrying about everything going right, too.  A panic about his suitability hit him at work and Jimmy had to talk him through it.  Bill felt that just proved his worries, but Jimmy waved them off.

So did Sarah when she got home.  She set her purse down, picked up Nathan for kisses, and listened to Bill’s worries.  She laughed gently and sent him out to walk Sadie. 

“Look at all the signs up in the neighborhood while you’re at it.  They all know you as a neighbor, not just a deputy, and they’re still going to vote for you,” she pointed out.  “Jericho remembers.”

That’s what he was afraid of.  How many people had he written tickets for, arrested, or otherwise inconvenienced as part of his job?

The worry was all in vain, of course.  He won the election with hardly a write-in vote against him.

Now ex-Sheriff Dawes met him in the office the next morning and formally handed over the sheriff’s star.  Bill pinned it on almost in a trance.

Dawes clapped him on the shoulder, told him he’d do a good job, and left.

Bill sat down in the sheriff’s chair and looked around the office.  It was quiet; Jimmy was out patrolling and they’d need to hire someone to be his new partner.  The idea of Jimmy having a different partner struck Bill as all sorts of wrong, but it had to be done.

What else did he have to do?  Oh, he knew what Sheriff Dawes generally did – the sheriff had made sure to teach Bill over the past weeks – but what precisely did he need to do now?

Bill pulled some paper out from the printer and grabbed a pen.  It took some thinking and he’d need Sarah’s help, but two hours later he had a workable plan for teaching the department to hunt.

He leaned back in the chair and grinned.  If he did nothing else, he was going to make sure law enforcement in Jericho was ready for _anything._


End file.
